Gov. Tamayo asks PhilHealth, hospital officials to work together amid COVID 19 woes
HEALTH • 08:30 AM Fri Mar 20, 2020
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By:
Hanah G. Naanep/PhilHealth 12
outh Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo S Tamayo, Jr. (left) listens during an meeting on COVID-19 preparation with PhilHealth and health care providers in South Cotabato. (PhilHealth photo)
KOROANDAL CITY -- “I am thankful that as of this date, we don’t have confirmed cases yet but in times like this, we all need to give and take just in case because this one is something different after earthquake.”
These were the words of South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo S. Tamayo, Jr. in his emergency meeting with PhilHealth-12 and South Cotabato Health Care Providers at the Provincial Capitol amid Covid-19 scare.
“I don’t want that virus to enter the province. Let’s control everything. Ïn fact, I could not sleep. This is under my command responsibility. When worse comes to worst, I would mean to lock down even the barangays to determine the source and stop this viral disease,” he stressed.
As precautionary measure, the governor has already requested the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to deploy police and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology nurses to the hospitals, just in case.
He urged the government and private hospitals to accommodate patients and refer them to higher facilities whenever needed.
PhilHealth, as manager of the National Health Insurance Program, was requested to minimize requirements for members in the availment process and to fast tract the release of payment for hospitals.
“They might run short of resources,” he said.
PhilHealth XII Acting Regional Vice President Dr. Antoniette M. Ladio committed to speed up claims processing for hospitals with receivables provided they could submit their reconciliation reports based on PhilHealth’s records and those with denied claims could submit their motion for reconsideration.
As to the possibility for PhilHealth to increase its COVID 19 benefit package, the ARVP said that to date, PhilHealth has already created the Task Force for COVID 19 in response to code red level 2.
“We might be coming up with the enhancement. Test kit is now being sold at 1K since it is locally produced by the University of the Philippines. As pronounced by President Duterte, the kit is free… We are still waiting further instructions,” he said.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) like face shield and booties including isolation room accreditation apart from the hospital according to him shall only be accredited by PhilHealth once they are also accredited by the DOH.
As to South Cotabato Provincial Hospital proposed isolation facility located in Surallah that is the SocSargen Gen. Hospital (SGH) formerly Upper Valley Community District Hospital, Tamayo committed to discuss the matter with DOH.
With Presidential Proclamation #922 on state of Public Health Emergency due to coronavirus, he also promised to talk to the same agency about other proposed quarantine sites of private hospitals.
“This is a critical issue that must be resolved since we could not surely contain the number of patients in case of the outbreak,” he said.
As further agreed, an orientation on the importance of quarantine and immediate medical attention shall be conducted to OFWs upon arrival at the Gen. Santos City airport before letting them exit the departure area.
Hotline for everybody to be in the loop shall be provided as soon as the meeting with the neighboring mayors in the nearby areas is done.
PhilHealth AVP requested hospital owners to treat all patients under investigation and patients under monitoring to be covered with privacy and confidentiality.
In conclusion, Gov. Tamayo thanked all everybody present in the meeting. He added: “This is just the beginning of our journey together as health stewards of our people here in South Cotabato.”