MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) released over P200 million worth of funds to hospitals treating only one COVID-19 patient each, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said on Saturday.
One hospital is in Bicol and another in Eastern Visayas, Lacson said in a radio interview over AM radio station DWIZ, but he did not identify the hospitals.
“And the money was released quickly,” he added, speaking in Filipino.
In Bicol, P247 million was released in just two weeks, and in Eastern Visayas, P196 million was released in just a week, he said.
“But they only have one COVID-19 patient [each],” he added.
Lacson lamented that there were other hospitals full of COVID-19 in dire need of funds from PhilHealth.
“This is a surprising allegation. We got this report and we will ask [at a planned Senate hearing] if this is true. But this has records,” he said.
According to Lacson, five hospitals in two regions are involved in this reported scheme from PhilHealth.
Lacson also warned that if this would keep up, PhilHealth might get bankrupt.
He pointed out that its debt-to-equity ratio was falsified in its financial statement for 2019. According to him, it was actually 1:0.99. / atm