The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) paid PHP3.7 million for benefit claims of Konsulta Package providers in Antique as of the end of October this year.

Janimhe Jalbuna, Public Affairs Unit head of PhilHealth Western Visayas, said 32,508 of the 225,438 registered members availed of the service or had their first patient encounter with the program.

“The first patient encounter is when a member goes to the healthcare provider to have her medical history taken,” she said during the media forum here on Tuesday.

A member avails of the consultation, health screening and assessment during the first encounter. Depending on the screening result and succeeding laboratory tests, the member can also avail of free medicines that are part of the package.

“Among the common diseases of members who seek consultation are pneumonia, hypertension, myocardial infarction, new born sepsis and asthma,” Jalbuna said.

Antique has 27 accredited Konsulta providers composed of eight district hospitals, the lone provincial hospital –Angel Salazar Memorial General Hospital in San Jose de Buenavista, and the rural health units in the 18 towns of the province.

“Antique, in fact, tops the number of healthcare providers in the region,” Jalbuna said.

Junie Sabusap, PhilHealth head in Antique, said they embarked on an intensified campaign in 2022 although the program got rolled out two years ago.

“We encourage more members to avail of the Konsulta package,” he said.

There are two ways to register to avail of the program.

One is through self-registration, where they log in to the member portal or member online registration in the PhilHealth portal or through assisted registration with the help of their employer, social worker of the facility, or the local government unit. (PNA)