TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines- The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) moved to reaccredit Tuguegarao City People’s General Hospital (TCPGH) following discovery of alleged anomalies in the release of more P2 million benefit claims.
In an interview with reporters on Thursday, November 3, Mayor Jefferson Soriano says officials of PhilHealth informed that the appeal of the city government to reaccredit TCPGH has been granted on Tuesday, November 28.
“With the constant follow-up of the city council and myself in returning the accreditation of PGH, finally, about two days ago, I was called, vice mayor [Benben De Guzman] was called, na re-accredited na ang PGH natin,” Soriano announced.
The TCPGH application for accreditation for the year 2017 was denied due to alleged fake claims.
READ: P2.2M ghost Philhealth claims in Tuguegarao hospital: How it happened?
Earlier investigations showed doctors and a hospital employee connived to process fake claims.
Soriano said they are now planning for measures to make the anomaly will no longer be repeated.
“We came up immediately with a new team to man our PhilHealth and I signed a commitment with Dr. Rey Dulig, in behalf of the city government, na we will marry their process with our process para hindi na po mangyari ‘yung nangyaring ganun,” the mayor said.
“So they have a software, they will lend it to us, we will try to marry it with our software. Hopefully, we would be able to give better services to our people,” he added.
‘Not retroactive’
Vice Mayor De Guzman also said the reaccreditation will not be retroactive, meaning those who were hospitalized from January 1 this year up to November 27 are still not eligible for claims.
“‘Yung mga claims [nung] nawala po yung accreditation, hindi na po nila make-claim ‘yun. So effective lang last Tuesday po ‘yung mga magke-claim, yun lang ang puwedeng i-claim,” De Guzman said.
Soriano also apologized to the people who have not enjoyed their privileges due to non-accreditation of the hospital.
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank PhilHealth and apologize to our people for that very unfortunate wherein [a lot of people from Tuguegarao suffered because the denial of accreditation of our PhilHealth],” Soriano said, adding that they are discussing possible remedies to compensate those supposed claims.
He added that they are also still pursuing the charges against the people involved in the alleged scam. Northernforum.net
