Mindanaotoday.com | PhilHealth-10 grinds claim within 14 days
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – From the mandatory 60-day processing of claims, the state-owned Philippine Health Insurance Corporation-10 (PhilHealth-10) has cut the duration to 14 days.
Delio Aseron II, PhilHealth-10 Regional Vice President, disclosed this Thursday, August 18, in a recognition program of health care institutions, employers, and journalists at Mallberry Business Suite in Cagayan de Oro.
“We were able to resolve important issues and managed to reduce the turnaround of claims processing to an average of 14 days in May this year, the highest among PhilHealth regional offices,” Aseron said.
PhilHealth’s average turnaround for claim processing across regions is 39 days.
Aseron said parallel to claims processing efforts has been their adherence to internal quality management, determining which aspect of services require more resources for them to be more efficient and responsive.
He said they regularly review business processes to improve their systems, aside from learning from positive and negative feedbacks, anchored on three pillars of management – Communication, Drive for excellence, and Offer pro-active assistance or CDO.
“We reinforced our existing communication lines with stakeholders, focusing more on partner Health Care Institutions (HCI) which are direct conduits to PhilHealth members,” said Aseron, admitting the pandemic has understandably reduced the daily outputs in the processing of claims.
He said that with CDO, PhilHealth-10 managed to partner with the region’s HCI who, for years, filed claims that were either denied or returned (Return to Hospital or RTH) for various reasons, aside from incomplete documents.
Twenty HCIs which used to have denied and RTH claims were among the recipients of plaques and framed certificates as “Most Improved HCI” dubbed “Pagpasidungog” which, in Bisayan, means “to honor” or “to recognize.”
Aseron said he has inherited a very talented group of employees and this makes it easier to implement UHC (Universal Health Care) activities, citing further the leadership qualities of former PhilHealth-10 RVPs Orlando Iñigo Jr., Dr. Jonathan Ortigoza (officer-in-charge), and Datu Masiding Alonto Jr.
One of PhilHealth UHC activities, in tandem with the Department of Health, is the PhilHealth Konsulta which has generated support from health care institutions region-wide.
“Pagpasidungog” plaques and certificates were handed to 35 employers in government agencies and private firms, 20 health care institutions, 19 individual media practitioners, nine media organizations, and six UHC champions.
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