Private hospitals in Iloilo City carried out their threat of not renewing their Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) accreditation following the latter's non-remittance for medical reimbursements, December 10.

In a letter to Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas, executives of seven hospitals pointed out up to Php 545,094,532.45 worth of unpaid claims as of August 31, 2021.

"We respectfully inform you that in our meeting [on] December 9, we, the undersigned seven private hospitals in the City of Iloilo (St. Paul’s Hospital, Iloilo Doctors Hospital, Iloilo Mission Hospital, The Medical City Iloilo, Medicus Medical Center, Qualimed Hospital Iloilo, and Metro Iloilo Hospital and Medical Center Inc.), decided not to renew our accreditation with the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PHIC) starting January 1, 2022," they noted.

The hospitals clarified that they would continue to accommodate PhilHealth members but would not process the claims and instead provide the necessary statement of accounts for their reimbursement and repay the PHIC contributions of their employees.

“A reconciliation process aimed to pay off the accounts receivables was initiated by PHIC last October 8, 2021, resulting in accounting for 15 to 20 percent payment of the total accounts receivables ending August 31, 2021," they added.

Treñas had long since been pushing PhilHealth to take the necessary actions, even filing a case against the organization, to no success.

“We are greatly saddened by this action [but] are left with no other choice to ensure the survival of our hospitals and uphold our commitment to offering necessary and quality healthcare to our patients,” the private hospitals concluded.