00:00The newly appointed president and chief executive officer of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation or PhilHealth, Dr. Edwin Maricado,
00:07vows to find a cure for the problems that PhilHealth has been facing.
00:11The new PhilHealth chief, though, acknowledges that leading the state insurer will be a major challenge for him.
00:17PTV's Floyd Renz has more details in this report.
00:23It's not that I'm not going to use it. I'm just looking at PhilHealth that is sick.
00:28And I'm also looking for a cure.
00:31To address the issues facing the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation or PhilHealth,
00:35newly appointed president and CEO, Dr. Edwin Maricado, plans to reform the agency's financial system.
00:42This includes reviewing expenses, identifying wasted funds, and ensuring proper allocation to improve efficiency and implement necessary reforms.
00:52Maricado will also push for digitalization to streamline the review and approval of claims from healthcare facilities.
00:59This will help detect possible fraud, ensure proper fund utilization, and improve services.
01:05One of the main targets is to expand the scope of benefit packages to cover more medical services under PhilHealth.
01:12I would like to emphasize that the 20 or 30 diseases that are more critical do not necessarily cause catastrophic spending.
01:22So I will also look at the data on what are the critical diseases that cause catastrophic spending.
01:30And that is probably what we will focus on first.
01:33Currently, patients shoulder around 45 to 47 of their hospital bills.
01:38PhilHealth aims to lower this to just 30% to help more Filipinos and ease the burden of paying medical bills.
01:45From PTV Manila, Floyd Brents, Balitang Pambansa.
