THE Cebu City government is allocating P2 million to make sure that indigent city residents are again accommodated at the Don Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC).
The amount will be charged against its allocation for the City Hospitalization Assistance and Medicines Program (CHAMP).
Henry Sanchez, CHAMP head, said they are processing the release of the initial P500,000 for the VSMMC.
“But the city government will continue to be on top of the implementation of the CHAMP.
Admissions at Sotto will still need endorsement from the Champ office,” he said.
Putting city funds with VSMMC was the city’s assurance that it would foot the bill of its indigent patients.
The VSMMC management stopped receiving city-referred patients in their hospital in 2010 because of City Hall’s unpaid bills amounting to about P3 million which were incurred from 2009 to 2010.
Acting Mayor Edgardo Labella said the VSMMC’s payment claims cannot be paid unless they comply with the city’s requirements for payment, including a list of the admitted patients and their medical abstract.
But he agreed on the need to deposit P2 million in CHAMP funds with VSMMC to assure of the city’s willingness to settle its obligations.
Labella met with VSMMC Medical Director Gerardo Aquino last week.
City Administrator Lucelle Mercado, Department of Social Welfare and Services office head Ester Concha and Cebu City Medical Center head Gloria Duterte are tasked to draft the guidelines on how to go about the use of the P2 million allocation.
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