Palace defends PhilHealth’s hefty allocation for Davao City-based hospital

August 13, 2020

Malacañang defended on Wednesday the huge allocation by Philippine Health Insurance Corp. under its Interim Reimbursement Mechanism by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. to a Davao City-based government hospital

"We find nothing irregular in the PhilHealth Interim Reimbursement Mechanism allocation of Southern Philippines Medical Center," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.

PhilHealth provides IRM, an emergency cash advance to hospitals in case of unanticipated events like natural disasters and calamities in order to respond immediately.

"Historically, SPMC has had the biggest amount of claims due to its regular provision of healthcare services to patients all over Mindanao," Roque said.

He noted that the SPMC is 1,500-bed hospital with almost 3,600 personnel.

Citing the Department of Health, Roque said the hospital in President Rodrigo Duterte's hometown is the biggest facility in the country as a government hospital.

He added that last year, the hospital total admissions were 76,586 and the outpatients were 586,278.

"SPMC has several integrated specialty buildings which are stand alone, like the Heart Institute, the Institute for Women and Newborn Care, the Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Institute, the Cancer Institute, the Intensive Care Complex, and the main hospital for General Medicine and Surgery," the official said.

He also cited SPMC has the biggest hemodialysis in the country with 65 dialysis chairs.

"SPMC also has the highest PhilHealth income, breaking the billion mark. Its average income for 2018-2019 is P1.2-B and IRM is based on the monthly average or the track record of reimbursement for 2018-19," Roque said.

During the Senate investigation on the alleged corruption in PhilHealth, agency's corporate legal counsel Roberto Labe Jr. disclosed that SPMC received the highest reimbursement for coronavirus disease patients amounting to P326 million, even higher than the Philippine General Hospital in Manila, which was at second place with P263.3 million. Celerina Monte/DMS