Veterans scam also duped Filipino doctors
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:09:00 05/03/2008
The Philippine Daily Inquirer banner story, “Pentagon lost $100M to US vets scam in RP” (Inquirer, 4/25/08) gave the wrong impression that only the US military’s health insurance program was victimized by some healthcare providers here in the Philippines. Filipino doctors, who worked for these healthcare providers servicing US retirees under the so-called Tricare program, were also swindled.
The Tricare Overseas Program Payment (Tricare) is administered by the Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corp. (WPSIC), which is based in the United States. WPSIC, in turn, deals with health care providers which, in the Philippines, are usually owners of hospitals and/or clinics.
Aside from submitting bogus/bloated claims to WPSIC, the erring health providers also made Filipino doctors work for them under the Tricare program with a promise that they will be paid for their services once WPSIC remits the payments. But upon collecting the payments, the healthcare providers would pocket the money and would not give anything to the doctors.
Most of these doctors couldn’t sue simply because whatever documents they need to prove payments by WPSIC are either with the healthcare providers (who wouldn’t show the documents to them for obvious reasons) or with WPSIC (to which they have no access).
Under the same claim, however, Filipino doctors Jose Maria J. Sembrano, Ramon Carlos Miguel L. Alemany, John A. Batara, Jose Armando Angelo L. Layug and Gabriel G. Tan did sue. They claim that Virgilio S. Rodil and his wife Dr. Yolanda C. Rodil, Dr. Andres Bonifacio and the St. Michael Medical Center Inc. in Bacoor, Cavite made them attend to Tricare patients for many months in 2004 to 2005 only to be falsely told, after those many months of labor, that WPSIC did not remit any payment.
If Philippine authorities (the National Bureau of Investigation or the Department of Justice) would investigate this scam, they should first look into the concerns of these Filipino doctors and others who, like the US military’s Tricare program, were victimized by the scam. Evidence so far presented in Sembrano, et al.’s case (Civil Case No. 05-984 before Branch 147 of the Regional Trial Court, Makati City) could help them with their investigation.
JOSELITO A. OLIVEROS, 163-A Kamias Road, Quezon City
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