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Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Daily Wrap
Davao hospital got biggest PhilHealth cash advance. Inquirer Newsletter. August 12, 2020
No images? Click here MARKET WATCH Looking for violators of health and safety regulations, an Army soldier extends his patrol to the interior of the public market in Taytay, Rizal province, on Tuesday. The municipality recently passed an ordinance requiring residents to wear not only protective masks but also face shields in public places to curb the transmission of the coronavirus. –GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE WorldRussia OKs vaccine but concerns raisedMOSCOW—Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country’s regulators had approved the locally developed vaccine for COVID-19. The approval of the vaccine named “Sputnik V” was given even before the start of the large-scale Phase 3 trial that stirred concern among world regulators, who said the rush to develop a shot against the new coronavirus disease should not compromise safety. -REPORTS FROM REUTERS AND AFP Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/World RegionsFoot traffic gone in ‘tsinelas’ capitalBusiness has not been good these days for footwear stores in Liliw, the “tsinelas” capital of Laguna province, as the pandemic kept tourists out. Bulk orders for locally made sandals and slippers had also been canceled due to the closure of shopping malls and department stores. Liliw hosts 200 footwear manufacturers and retailers, each employing 10 to 50 people in the industry that started in the 1930s. —STORY BY MARICAR CINCO Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/Maricar Cinco SportsLifesaver Casugay scoops up a 1st for PHPhilippine surfing ace Roger Casugay, for rescuing Indonesian foe Arip Nurhidayat from drowning in the Southeast Asian Games’ longboard semifinals last year, will receive the prestigious Pierre de Coubertin Act of Fair Play Award from the Comite International du Fair-Play (International Fair Play Committee)—a first for a Filipino. The health situation permitting, the awards ceremony is set on Oct. 20 in Monaco. -STORY BY JUNE NAVARRO Read more: sports.inquirer.net/June Navarro Newsletter / Join usHas this been forwarded by a friend? Subscribe now to the Philippine Daily Inquirer Newsletter and get your latest news and important updates on COVID-19 and the enhanced community quarantine. Banner storyDavao hospital got biggest PhilHealth cash advanceBy Marlon Ramos Weeks before it approved the guidelines for the use of special funds for the government’s COVID-19 response, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) had already handed out P9.3 billion in cash advances to various hospitals, especially favored health facilities, Sen. Panfilo Lacson disclosed on Tuesday. At the resumption of the Senate hearing on the corruption scandal hounding the state-run health insurer, PhilHealth officials said a hospital in Davao City was the biggest recipient of funds from the P30-billion Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM). Southern Philippines Medical Center, a public hospital in President Duterte’s hometown, received P326 million. The University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital in Manila, a major referral hospital for COVID-19 patients, received P262.3 million in advance payment. Lacson, Senate President Vicente Sotto III and other senators pounced on the questionable distribution of the IRM allocations, which were specifically allocated for hospitals treating patients infected with the new coronavirus. Lacson said a review of PhilHealth records showed a “pattern” that some hospitals, particularly private-owned, were favored in the distribution of IRM over state-owned hospitals. For example, he said Eastern Samar Gov. Ben Evardone had been complaining about the delay in the reimbursement of P24 million in benefit claims of at least 10 district hospitals in the province. “There’s a pattern here. Why is this happening? There seems to be favoritism in choosing… private hospitals receiving IRM funds,” Lacson said. Sen. Joel Villanueva said the swift release of P45 million in cash advances to B. Braun Avitum Philippines despite the dialysis center’s pending cases in PhilHealth proved that the health insurer had given preferential treatment to certain health facilities. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that there’s favoritism in PhilHealth,” Villanueva said. “Are you not conducting due diligence? You are releasing millions of pesos,” Lacson said. “You made advance payments to B. Braun, which is charging their patients for dialysis. So where did the money that you gave go?” Thorrsson Montes Keith, who had resigned as PhilHealth antifraud legal officer, said he suspected PhilHealth Senior Vice President Rodolfo del Rosario actually owned B. Braun, based on the deposits made to a rural bank in Balanga, Bataan province, which the PhilHealth official allegedly frequented. Del Rosario denied owning the dialysis center. LP bailiwick “Up to this point, not a single peso was released to these 33 hospitals,” Drilon said. But Robert Labe Jr., PhilHealth corporate counsel, insisted that all the IRM releases were consistent with PhilHealth’s existing regulations. “The IRM is not provided arbitrarily. There is a process being followed,” he said. Sotto, who spearheaded the investigation along with Lacson, asked PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo Morales about the legal basis of the IRM that would justify the distribution of billions of pesos in cash advances to public and private health facilities. Morales, who joined the hearing via the internet, said Republic Act No. 7875, the law that created PhilHealth, allowed it to “supervise the provision of health benefits… and set standards, rules and regulations necessary to ensure quality” of health care in the country. But Sotto said the concept of “payment mechanism” as stated in the law was different from “financial mechanism” that the PhilHealth board cited in creating IRM. “Does PhilHealth have the power to finance any (hospital)? That’s not included in your mandate, right?” Sotto asked the PhilHealth chief. Morales agreed, adding that the corporation’s authority was to pay for health services. Anticipating COVID-19 “We were in the state of anxiety (then) because we knew COVID-19 was coming,” Morales said. “We wanted to take preemptive measures to be able to prepare our hospitals to respond to this pandemic.” Lacson and Drilon took Morales to task for claiming that PhilHealth came up with the idea about the IRM in January. Drilon pointed out that Health Secretary Francisco Duque III was telling the public in early March that there was no need for the public to worry. PhilHealth board member Alejandro Cabading and Dr. Susan Mercado, who recently resigned from the board, denied Morales’ statement. “As far as I can recall, we were not talking about COVID-19 (that time),” Mercado said, adding that it was not the board that initially allotted P27 billion for IRM. Replying to Lacson’s queries, Mercado said the PhilHealth board was just “informed and asked to endorse” PhilHealth Circular No. 2020-0007, which Morales supposedly signed on March 20. Antedated resolution Showing another set of documents, the senator said the resolution was “antedated,” as it was finalized only on April 22, or more than a month after the health insurer started disbursing IRM funds. Lacson said PhilHealth’s IRM distribution had already ballooned to P9.3 billion by then. Worse, PhilHealth adopted only on March 31 Board Resolution No. 2515, which was needed to justify the March 20 circular, according to the senator. “So what were the guidelines (used by) the regional vice presidents in issuing IRM when the guidelines, called the SOP (standard operating procedures), were issued only after (the funds had been distributed)?” Lacson asked. ‘Some expedients’ “We had to immediately release the funds. But we made sure that all the releases were covered by a contract and that we would be able to account for all the funds that were (made) available,” he added. Lacson wondered why the cart came before the horse. “The (board) resolution is the one which should pull the cart,” he told Morales. P1,000 for fake patients Zubiri said these hospitals were allegedly paying individuals P1,000 each for “acting” as patients, who were entitled to reimbursements from the health insurer. “Some (hospitals) pay people P1,000 to act as patients in order to (collect benefit) claims for more serious ailments from PhilHealth,” he said.
Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net EditorialBig talk, big mistakeToo bad the new Armed Forces chief of staff began his brief—six months—term of office with what Sen. Panfilo Lacson later described as an "ill-advised" statement. At his first press briefing as military chief, Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay said provisions on the regulation of the use of social media should be included in the implementing rules and regulations (IRRs) of the Anti-Terrorism Act. It expectedly drew heavy flak, so that days later the multiawarded and -decorated officer was compelled to say: "What I meant by that is to regulate and put order on the social media platforms, not the users per se." Read full story: opinion.inquirer.net |
The Manila Times Newsletter | August 12, 2020
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