Mindanaotoday.com | JRB hospital chief says not all is free
By: URIEL QUILINGUING
By the time a patient is admitted in a government-owned medical facility, he is automatically billed for the standard hospital room rate, and once a physician is assigned to check his medical condition, he would be charged for professional fee.
Medical Doctor Ferdinand Miranda, acting chief of the city government-run Justiniano R. Borja General Hospital (JRBGH), disclosed this on Thursday, November 8, 2023 in City Information Office’s “In Focus,” a livestreamed Q&A program.
But patients need not personally pay because these are covered by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) and the government’s Medical Assistance to Indigent Patients (MAIP), Miranda said.
Supporting papers, however, must be processed under the no-balance-billing policy through PhilHealth, thus ensuring qualified members shall not spend out-of-pocket for services rendered to them in accredited public and private hospitals.
Still, there are instances when patients must be billed for hospital admissions and treatments and would be compelled to pay, and these are medico-legal and home against medical advice (HAMA)) cases, the hospital chief said.
Medico-legal cases are patients who were brought to hospitals for treatment from gunshot or stab wounds and injuries from vehicular accidents who would later on file cases in court. An official receipt that payment was made is one of the documentary requirements.
Miranda said there are patients who would opt to stay home, after initial treatment, even if they are supposed to be in hospital, and they are to sign waivers stating they will no longer avail of PhilHealth benefits and DSWD’s MAIP. Hence, they have to pay for their stay at the JRBGH.
Standard rates, at the moment, is P400 for hospital bed per day, and P1,500 for doctor’s professional fee.
Miranda said that granting all documents, including a Certificate of Indigency from the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s MAIP are complied with, still some medicines and laboratory services that the patient needs and must comply may have to be sourced outside the city hospital.
Not all medicines are available and could be given free to all patients and prescribed by doctors at the JRBGH because non-PNDF (Philippine National Drug Formation) are not allowed for refund by PhilHealth and the Department of Health.
He said that the volume of patients has more than doubled in recent months, compelling them to allocate enough medicines and laboratory reagents and services for inpatients, though it does not mean they are refusing admissions and turning away outpatients.
JRBGH’s Out-Patient Department (OPD) used to serve an average of 200 persons in a day, but this number has already gone up to as high as 600, Miranda said, compelling them to extend consultation services from 4pm to 10 pm.
But this, he said, would require hiring of additional nurses and doctors which was favorably granted by Mayor Rolando Uy and City Council members, including the approval of the extension of services from the usual eight to 14 hours.
The Emergency Room which, at the moment, has nine beds must also be increased to a hundred beds because there are days when the number of patients reached 150, the hospital chief said. But this would mean constructing a new two-level building at the left side of the main entrance of the hospital.
While the construction is ongoing, a makeshift ER facility would done at right side of the main building, the area being used for vehicle parking, Miranda said. MT
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