Grappling with PhilHealth problem: midwives not alone

We thank the Inquirer for publishing our letter (“Midwives send SOS to PhilHealth”) in its May 13 issue. We at United Private Lying-In Practitioners and Proprietresses are apparently not alone in this problem of unreimbursed PhilHealth claims. On TV, the same problem was recently aired by 600 members of the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. We strongly agree with their view that this is not simply a case of “technical glitches.” We affirm the notion that the people managing PhilHealth, who feasted on millions of bonuses (“PhilHealth ailing but execs happy with bonuses,” Front Page, 10/17/13), are not doing anything to solve the problem!

After a series of dialogues with PhilHealth officials and letters to media, we received a few checks dated May 14, 2014,  barely covering less than 10 percent of our total claims. Why do we have to suffer such a painstaking process and a financially depleting waiting period to get our reimbursements? Is it the intention of PhilHealth to exasperate and discourage us so that we stop pursuing our demand? We say now to PhilHealth: “Pay us in full!”

Furthermore, we cannot allow the problem to reach the point when hospitals and birthing clinics are forced to operate under a “cash now, reimburse later” scheme. This is not fair for poor patients who toil to pay their monthly PhilHealth premiums. Has PhilHealth joined the bandwagon of government agencies, like the Government Service Insurance System and the Social Security System, whose officials got fat bonuses while performing dismally as keepers of the employees’ hard-earned money? Private birthing clinics and PhilHealth members, speak up!

—MARITES BACUNATA, DOLORES PUOD, DOLORES FERMANO, JENNIFER MEDILLO and 116 OTHER MEMBERS OF UNITED PRIVATE LYING-IN PRACTITIONERS AND PROPRIETRESSES, uplippcavite@gmail .com