PEOPLE living with HIV will soon have access to a wider choice of health care providers for outpatient treatment and care.
The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) now accredits primary HIV care facilities (stand-alone or satellite treatment hubs) where members living with HIV can go for treatment and be covered by the state-run health insurance.
Previously, PhilHealth’s Outpatient HIV/AIDS Treatment (OHAT) Package could only be availed of in accredited hospitals designated as treatment hubs by the Department of Health (DOH). However, the health department expanded and decentralized the provision of outpatient HIV services to primary care facilities. In bringing essential health services to key geographic areas, DOH aims to increase access and maximize coverage of people living with HIV.
Aligned with this objective, PhilHealth issued Circular 2018-0004 providing guidelines for accreditation of stand-alone treatment and satellite hubs.
This opens the door to more health care providers of the corporation’s OHAT Package.
PhilHealth offers a means for people living with HIV to have financial access to effective health care by covering outpatient HIV/AIDS treatment.
In accrediting primary HIV care facilities, members living with HIV will have more health care providers to choose from for their treatment and care.
Currently, the following hospitals in Region 7 have been designated as treatment hubs by the DOH and are accredited providers of PhilHealth’s OHAT Package: Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Medical Center in Tagbilaran City, Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital in Dumaguete City, Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center and Visayas Community Medical Center-Balay Malingkawasnon in Cebu City, Eversley Childs Sanitarium and General Hospital in Mandaue City, and Talisay District Hospital in Talisay City.
Of the three DOH-designated primary HIV care facilities in Region 7, only one, so far, has applied for PhilHealth accreditation.
Effective this October, the Cebu City Social Hygiene Clinic is now an accredited provider of PhilHealth’s OHAT Package.
PhilHealth encourages all DOH-designated primary HIV care facilities in the Central Visayas to apply for accreditation. /PR
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