SEN. Richard Gordon appealed to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) not to put the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) in another fiscally problematic situation after the debt of the state insurer for the conduct of the Covid-19 swab tests surged to P800 million.
In a radio interview, Gordon, PRC chairman and CEO, said PhilHealth failed to pay them on time and he fears this will imperil their service.
However, Gordon said they are now in a situation where they cannot stop the testing as the specimen have all been sent to the laboratories already.
“We are the ones testing…OFW [overseas Filipino workers]. It’s okay with me for as long as they don’t jeopardize the economic situation of the Red Cross,” Gordon stressed.
Meanwhile, PhilHealth said they will give a partial payment to PRC this week.
PhilHealth Senior Manager Rey Baleña said that as of December 17, they already paid a total of P2.8 billion to PRC. He said they are readying a partial payment to PRC this week. The payment will reduce their outstanding debt to P500 million.
On October 14, PRC ceased conducting tests chargeable to PhilHealth as the state insurer owed them P1,014,975,500 as of October 13, 2020.
In November, the PRC resumed its Covid-19 testing services after PhilHealth paid an initial amount of P500 million of its then P1.1-billion debt to the humanitarian organization.