PhilHealth head defends IT deal

August 4, 2020

Ricardo Morales, president of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), defended his information technology project before a Senate hearing on Tuesday, saying that it is essential.

''For example, in our membership database. We have 5,000 members who are 130 years old and we cannot remove them because we have no proof that they are dead,'' he said.

Morales is pushing for a P2.1 billion infotech project for three years which will make the agency more efficient.

Senator Panfilo Lacson Jr told Morales that he agreed with the need for an infotech project. ''But there is a problem with the procurement,'' he said, pointing out big differences in price.

Resigned PhilHealth anti-fraud officer Thorrsson Montes Keith alleged that some Philhealth officials allegedly pocketed P15 billion from the agency.

PhilHealth board member Al Cabading accused some of the agencies' top officials for being involved in irregularities.

Morales, a former Army brigadier general, took over last year as president after PhilHealth was beset by payments to ghost dialysis centers.  He said the infotech project will help curb graft and corruption.

The “systematic” fraud plaguing PhilHealth will only be minimized by a “robust, integrated, and harmonized information management system” that could run a membership database, Morales alleged. DMS