PB Member Peter John Calderon (left) listens to the questions posed by PB member Celestino Martinez III (right) on the payment of PhilHealth premiums. (CDN Photo/Junjie Mendoza)
THE Cebu Provincial Board (PB) yesterday approved a P30-million supplemental budget for the payment of two years worth of health insurance premiums.
This is the second supplemental budget approved by the PB this year. Barely a month ago, a P207-million supplemental budget was also approved.
“Primarily, this P30 million will be used to pay the prior years’ transactions with PhilHealth for the payment of unpaid premiums incurred by the province for the period of 2012 and 2013,” said PB Member Peter John Calderon, author of the ordinance appropriating the amount.
Calderon said the budget will cover the premiums of the province-sponsored indigent constituents.
He said the total amount that the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is collecting for 2012 and 2013 is P99 million, incurred sometime between the terms of then governor Gwendolyn Garcia and incumbent Gov. Hilario Davide III.
Up to date
“I think we already paid P150 million for the premiums for those periods, leaving a balance of only P99 million,” he said during the discussion in yesterday’s session.
Calderon said present enrollees have encountered problems in making claims recently.
“A circular issued by PhilHealth stated that if the local government unit has arrears in the payment of previous premiums, they will not honor even if we are paying the current payments for this year,” he said.
He said the provincial government is up to date with payments for 2014 and the present year.
Calderon said there is an ongoing negotiation with PhilHealth for the payment of premiums on an installment basis.
“If we will be able to enter into some sort of agreement wherein we will specifically express our intention to pay on a certain date the whole amount, not necessarily the entire P99 million in one payment,” he told the board.