CATARMAN, Northern Samar (PIA) — The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has sustained the medical needs of individuals who are undergoing hemodialysis sessions through its accredited healthcare providers.
This was the experience of Eliza Badilla, 67 years old from Calbayog City, who has been under treatment since she was 62.
Her son, Gerard, 38, has also been undergoing dialysis for two years now.
The mother and son are just two examples of countless others who relied mainly on the government’s health insurance agency to continue living a normal life.
"Without the government assistance through PhilHealth, we would never have survived until now. It is PhilHealth's coverage that sustains us, and even as we came from Calbayog, we were accommodated in a private facility based in Catarman," Badilla told the Philippine Information Agency in an interview.
Accredited providers in Northern Samar included 11 hospitals, four Level 1 hospitals, 14 rural health units with birthing facilities and Konsulta providers, four birthing stations in barangays, one dialysis clinic, and eight animal bite treatment centers.
Including dialysis sessions, the government’s public health insurer has paid P287,661,134.58 to all these accredited healthcare facilities in the province, said Joana Manalili, PhilHealth social insurance officer.
Joana Manalili, PhilHealth social insurance officer of Northern Samar, shares latest updates during a Kapihan sa PIA interview where she was the guest. (Photo by PIA Northern Samar)
“Our mandate is to provide health insurance coverage and ensure affordable, acceptable, available, and accessible health care services to all Filipino citizens, and this includes financing the availment of basic minimum package and other supplementary packages of health insurance benefits,” Manalili said during a recent Kapihan sa PIA.
In 2023, PhilHealth launched and implemented its enhanced benefits, particularly the institutionalization of 156 hemodialysis sessions from 90 sessions, the outpatient mental health package, the enhancement of Z benefit package for selected orthopedic implants and colorectal cancer, the increase of benefits package for ischemic stroke from P28,000 to P76,000, hemorrhagic stroke from P38,000 to P80,000, and the increase of benefit package for high-risk pneumonia from P32,000 to P90,100.
The increase in hemodialysis sessions to cover the whole year was particularly mentioned by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July last year.
Manalili assured PhilHealth members of their continuous assistance through enhanced and expanded benefit packages, reiterating her call for support from all concerned stakeholders and partners for PhilHealth to progressively realize universal health care. (MMP/ADiaz/PIA-Northern Samar)
