CALAMBA CITY, (PIA) – The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has significantly expanded its primary care services with the “Konsulta” or the Konsultasyong Sulit at Tama program, ensuring affordable and accessible healthcare for all Filipinos.
The Konsulta program offers health screenings, assessments, selected laboratory tests, and essential medicines tailored to individual needs.
During the Philippine Information Agency’s Usapang PIA radio program, PhilHealth CALABARZON Public Relations Officer Rexylene Verbo, announced PhilHealth’s new and expanded benefits on general mental health services.
For the outpatient mental health package, there is a benefit allotment of 9,000 pesos, while for specialty mental health services, there is an allotment of 16,000 pesos.
PhilHealth is also offering additional dialysis sessions, from the previous 90 chemo-dialysis sessions covered by the agency, they are now shouldering up to 156 chemo-dialysis sessions per year.
“So this is our good news for our members and also for their dependents, because since last year we have been continuously enhancing the benefits and we are having new benefits”, she said.
Another significant increase in coverage is for hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke illness.
Verbo explained: “We also have an enhancement for acute hemorrhagic stroke of 80,000 pesos which is up from 38,000 pesos, ischemic stroke is 76,000 pesos up from 28,000 pesos, so we can see that the benefit has really grown for said conditions.”
PhilHealth then urges its members and their dependents to regularly update their contributions to gain access to the health services being shouldered by the agency through their partner healthcare providers.
“Updating the record in PhilHealth is important so the only thing we should remember in PhilHealth is the 4M’s — become a member, update the record, pay contribution, and claim benefits. As members, we expect to be responsible members so that we can continue to improve PhilHealth programs.”
As of May 2024, there are 190 accredited Konsulta providers in Quezon Province, Laguna, and Cavite, serving over 1.6 million registered members, with additional providers in Rizal and Batangas.
This initiative is part of PhilHealth’s broader efforts under the provision of the Universal Health Care law, in providing easy access to healthcare and reducing the financial burden of Filipino families through the comprehensive state health insurance coverage. (AM, JD/PIA-4A)
