Capitol to partner with private HMOs for provincial hospital services

Cebu City, Philippines — Members of private health insurance companies may soon avail of their health insurance benefits when availing of the services of the Capitol-run district and provincial hospitals in Cebu.

The Cebu provincial government and health maintenance organizations (HMOs) eye to ink a partnership that would accredit the district and provincial hospitals as among the partner medical institutions where HMO holders and their dependents can avail of medical procedures courtesy of their health insurance.

In a Capitol news release, Provincial Legal Officer Donato Villa explained that the move will enable private health insurance policyholders and their dependents to avail of their medical procedures in the towns and cities of the province instead of going to private hospitals in Cebu City to avail of their HMO benefits for their medical needs.

At present, patients in the provincial and district hospitals only use their Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) benefits when availing of health services.

“Kadaghanan karon sa atong mga hospitals sa probinsya ang gidawat kana raman indigents. Kun naa man private patients mu-sud, mobayad man na siya although naa man Philhealth. Pero kini nga agreement, kanang mga private companies nga gi-cover nila empleyado og private health insurers, ug ila mga pamilya tua sa probinsya mostly, maka-avail na aning services sa atong provincial and district hospitals,” Villa said.

(Most of the hospitals in the province accept only indigents. If there are private patients who come in, they will pay although Philhealth is there. But with this agreement, all private companies who cover employees and private health insurers and their families who are mostly in the province, they can avail of these services of our provincial and district hospitals.)

In a meeting at the Capitol on October 14, 2020, the Capitol news release said a memorandum of agreement is being finalized and is due for signing within the month.

According to the PIO, one of the initial provisions that would be stipulated in the MOA will be the cash bond requirement, where the HMOs will deposit at least P200,000 in the provincial and district hospitals to ensure that the services that their policyholders will avail are funded.

“From there, we agreed a MOA will be drafted so that that this relationship will be well defined, there is no confusion aron way gubot unya. (so there won’t be any confusion in the future.) That’s the way the Province operates. Di mi magdali-dali, dili sad mi mosud sa usa ka butang unya lain sunod nga adlaw,” Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said.

(We will not rush, we will not arbitrarily enter into one thing and another the next day.)

Quoting PhilHealth-Central Visayas Acting Vice President Arlan Granali, the Provincial Information Office said the initiative is in line with the state health insurance’s program of convergence with private health insurance providers especially in the time of the coronavirus disease health crisis.

/bmjo