PhilHealth: Nothing lost from IRM, P14.6B liquidated by hospitals

This refers to your Nov. 11, 2022 editorial “Digitizing PhilHealth” and a related article “Aboitiz Group submits P 1-B offer to digitize PhilHealth claims process” by Doris Dumlao-Abadilla on Nov. 1, 2022.

A lot may have been said about the interim reimbursement mechanism (IRM), but what the Inquirer has consistently overlooked and failed to report is the fact that it has accomplished what it was intended for—that is, to provide our health care facilities with needed financial support so they can better respond to the threat of COVID-19. It was a decisive action by PhilHealth integral to the government’s overall pandemic response by prepositioning critically needed funds to where they are needed most.

The Philippine Hospital Association (PHA) has acknowledged and expressed support for its continuous implementation, citing “some hospitals who received the IRM managed to put in improvements in their facilities and were identified and designated by the IATF as COVID referral centers. The IRM helped as it was used to buy or manufacture the then scarce PPE … [and] to construct triage areas, emergency holding and treatment facilities, physical restructuring and purchase of equipment such as ventilators, HEPA filters, and overall improvement in their Infection Prevention and Control program.”

The PHA emphasized: “IRM helped the hospitals to prepare and get through some challenging times during the initial part of the pandemic.”

The issues that you have raised have all been thoroughly explained in all the proper venues at every opportunity. We have cooperated in the past, and we remain committed to work together with competent authorities including Congress to address the pertinent concerns previously raised with regards to its implementation.

Given the circumstances when it was dispensed to the hospitals, what everyone should realize is that the IRM is a demonstration of PhilHealth’s sense of urgency and readiness to respond to hospitals and patients in distress, but not without any basis. As of late, a total of P14.96 billion or 99.93 percent had been liquidated by the recipient hospitals. WALANG NAWAWALA SA IRM. WALANG BINULSA NINOMAN SA PHILHEALTH.

May this clarification be given equal merit in your newspaper.

SHIRLEY B. DOMINGO, MD,

vice president,

corporate affairs group,

Philippine Health Insurance Corp.