Mindanaotoday.com | PhilHealth benefits for Covid-19 remain
By: URIEL QUILINGUING
The package of benefits for Covid-19 which the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) grants to its members during the pandemic will stay, even if the declaration of a state of public health emergency (SPHE) for the disease was already lifted.
PhilHealth Regional Vice President Delio Aseron II on Monday, July 24, told this paper the lifting of the declaration of a SPHE did not say there is no more Covid-19 infections.
On Friday, July 21, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. issued Proclamation No. 297, lifting the state of public health emergency his predecessor, President Rodrigo Duterte, issued on March 8, 2020 after the country’s first case of Covid-19 local infection.
But the authority granted by Executive Order No. 121 in 2020 to the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFA) to issue emergency use authority (EUA) for Covid-19 vaccines shall be valid for a year, from the time Proclamation No. 297 was issued. Its sole purpose is to exhaust all remaining vaccines.
Aseron said Covid-19’s case is similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak which occurred in 2004. PhilHealth package of benefits for Sars still exists
until today because the virus has not perished.
The lifting, he said, does not affect PhilHealth package of benefits to members who get Covid-19 viral infection. The package includes testing, home isolation, community isolation, inpatient care, and vaccine injury compensation.
Covid-19 patients may process claims of testing expenses ranging from P500 to P2,450 for cartridge-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and P800 to P2,800 for plate-based reverse transcriptase (RT) PCR.
Asymptomatic Covid-19 patients who opt for home isolation, as certified by the local health office, may file claims not more than P5,917 each, while those in temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (community isolation) may individually avail of P22,449 benefit package.
For those tested positive for Covid-19 and admitted in hospitals due pneumonia, PhilHealth benefits range from P43,997 with mild symptoms; P143,267 with moderate symptoms; P333,519 with severe symptoms; and P786,384 in critical condition.
PhilHealth also grants P100 thousand as “vaccine injury compensation” for those who were hospitalized, permanently disabled, or who died due to the adverse effect of Covid-19 vaccine.
In Cagayan de Oro, the City Health Office reported on July 7, this year—it’s last live-streamed update on Covid-19—there was no new case that day, although there were 10 active cases. Covid-19 had claimed 978 lives, out of the 28,641 cumulative number of cases in Cagayan de Oro since March 2020.
On May 5, this year, the World Health Organization declared an end to Covid-19 global health emergency and advised countries to transition to long-term management of the pandemic, particularly on high vaccination coverage.
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