THE Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is expecting to spend P240 billion in payments to health facilities this year as it looks to increase accredited facilities to support its new programs and provide more services under the Universal Health Care Act.
The state insurer spent P20.13 billion in January in payments to health facilities, which would likely continue for the rest of the year, Bernadette C. Lico, vice-president for PhilHealth-National Capital Region office, said in a speech on Tuesday.
This was up by 38.02% from P14.58 billion in the same month in 2024.
“Most probably, you could multiply [that amount spent last month] by 12. That’s how much we expect to spend this year,” Ms. Lico said.
Meanwhile, the state insurer said it needs more than 5,000 healthcare facilities accredited.
“How we compute it is, each doctor can provide service for 20,000 patients, which would mean we will need more than 800 healthcare facilities to cover 17 million just in the National Capital Region. Currently, we have more than 400. Nationwide, we need more than 5,000,” Ms. Lico said.
Aside from private clinics, PhilHealth is reaching out to schools to accredit their clinics and cover the youth and children, she added.
Ms. Lico said the clinics could support PhilHealth’s new benefits such as preventive oral health services in primary care and pediatric optometric services. — Aaron Michael C. Sy
