STATE-RUN health insurer Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has finally released the guidelines on the enhancement of its benefit packages for member-patients suspected or confirmed to have been infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
According to PhilHealth Circular No. 2020-0004 signed by PhilHealth President and Chief Executive Officer Ricardo C. Morales, the agency has a comprehensive set of packages in response to the spread of Covid-19, including the Isolation Package, Referral Package and the existing All Case Rates.
“The existing package that may be accessed by PUI [Patients Under Investigation] for the 2019-nCoV infection needs to be enhanced to become more relevant in the concerned effort to address the growing concern,” read the circular addressed to all health-care providers and all concerned parties.
The circular shall take effect for admissions starting January 30, 2020.
Isolation Package with a case rate amount of P14,000 may be availed of by PUIs for Covid-19 and those with confirmed cases of the coronavirus with mild symptoms.
On the other hand, the referral package amounting to P4,000 covers PUIs who need to be referred to a higher level facility for quarantine. The fixed amount shall redound to the member’s hospital bill as his or her PhilHealth benefit for the initial management, stabilization, and proper transfer of the patient to the referral hospital.
In more severe cases wherein the infection can cause pneumonia, PhilHealth also has existing packages for pneumonia where the causative agent is a virus such as Covid-19.
PhilHealth also offers existing case rate packages for those cases with Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Pneumonia and Sepsis.
More than 80,000 people around the world have been infected by the virus and more than 2,700 deaths were recorded, according to international reports.
On Wednesday, the number of admitted PUIs in the Philippines stood at 101, as hundreds of previous PUIs were discharged. Only one death linked to Covid-19 was recorded so far in the country—a Chinese man who had traveled to the Philippines from Wuhan city, ground zero for Covid-19.