Philhealthcare Inc. (PhilCare) is unfazed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, as it bared on Wednesday that it is bullish on business prospects this year.
“We expect PhilCare to do well, not from Covid-19, but from the heightened need of Filipinos to take care of their health,” PhilCare President and CEO Jaeger L. Tanco told the BusinessMirror right after the company’s virtual media briefing.
“For the first time in our generation, health is now at the forefront of conversations. Our study confirms this.”
Tanco said the results of Philcare Community Quarantine Wellness Index indicated that 81.4 percent of respondents are “very worried” about the health of their loved ones.
Since the spread of Covid-19 late last year, prepaid plans have become one of the “easiest and most accessible” offerings that PhilCare members could avail of.
“We saw about a 50-percent increase in the number of inquiries over the ECQ [enhanced community quarantine],” said Raymond Tiangco, vice president for sales and marketing at PhilCare.
The health maintenance organization (HMO) has blazed a trail in the use of prepaid healthcards in the market.
“For that aspect in our business, we expect it to go up,” Tanco said of the projected increase in the sales of “sachet-type” of products.
As an HMO’s revenues come from membership fees, he said the company expects a reduction in its top line due to the projected increase in the number of their clients who will have to let go of their employees.
“As far as ballpark figures [are concerned], it is still too early to say by how much since we are all adapting our companies and workforces to the new normal,” he said.
PhilCare reported that its revenues grew by 15.8 percent to P2.68 billion in 2019, from P2.31 billion in 2018.
Currently, the firm is taking on new innovations by leveraging on technology that improves the delivery of quality healthcare to the public.
DigiMed service, for instance, is a kind of medical teleconsult that will make a more pronounced impact as the country now embraces the new normal amid the Covid-19 crisis.
This offering on the HeyPhil application has so far received around 1,500 digital consultations a month.
The company has also recently launched DigiMed PLUS, a web-based telemedicine app that allows members access to numerous specialists via video call.