Red Cross Stops OFW Swab Tests As PhilHealth Fails To Pay Accumulated Fees
RED CROSS STOPS SWAB TESTS – The Philippine Red Cross said OFWs, government workers, and frontliners could not avail of coronavirus swab tests when using PhilHealth cards to ensure payment.
This was due to the state-run insurance company’s inability to pay for accumulated fees for the testing. Currently, the fees have accumulated to more than P930 million. As such, starting Wednesday, the PRC suspended accepting specimens from OFWs and frontliners.
Because of this, PhilHealth urged OFWs to instead go to accredited testing centers such as the Lung Center of the Philippines and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM). Here, PhilHealth says members could avail of the benefit while they address the issue with the PRC.
Meanwhile, the National Task Force Chief implementer Carlito Galvez assured that PRC chair, Senator Richard Gordon, and PhilHealth Chief Dante Gierran are hashing out the issues. During a virtual press conference, Galvez stated:
We want to clarify the signed MOA because there was a change in prices. And the new president of PhilHealth just wanted to make sure that all is in order
However, PhilHealth stated that they were in close coordination with the PRC to resume accommodating the RT-PCR tests. Moreover, it said that it has paid the PRC a total of 1.6 billion for at least 433,263 laboratory tests.
But, the PRC responded by saying the health insurer “failed to meet its obligation amounting to P930 million”. “One simply cannot turn a blind eye on the impact of the receivable amount in the level of PhilHealth’s obligation“, the PRC said in a statement.
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