The Health Services Office (HSO) here is onboarding the private hospitals and strengthening the city’s health care provider network (HCPN) to ensure that residents can to avail of the benefits of the health insurance system under the Universal Health Care Law (UHCL).

Dr. Celia Flor Brillantes, city health officer, said: “The goal is unburdening the clients who are referred to the private hospitals from doing the paperwork and making HSO and the institution responsible for completing the document that will cause transfer of funds to the private hospital.”

Brillantes spoke on the sidelines of the 3rd Baguio City Health Care provider network summit at the Baguio Country Club on Thursday, which is a biennial event.

It was attended by officers and doctors from the three tertiary hospitals in Baguio —Saint Louis University Hospital of the Sacred Heart, Notre Dame de Chartres Hospital, Pines City Doctors Hospital and representatives from the Camp Dangwa Hospital and infirmary of the Philippine Military Academy.

The HCPN is composed of private providers, mostly hospitals, where patients are referred from primary health facilities such as health centers, before they proceed, if needed, to the apex hospital — the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) in the case of city residents here.

Brillantes said, “We wanted to see the role of the HCPN in the full implementation of UHC. The role has been redefined, more on the referral system, inter-operability of systems and the financing mechanism.”

She said they refer patients to HCPN partners like hospitals. “But how do they cost the services, not through (their own) pocket but through us, they bill us, and we pay them, not the patients to unburden them and allow them to focus on getting well.”

She noted, however, that while the goal is zero “out of pocket,” if the patient opts to be referred to a private HCPN, there is a co-payment of about PHP600 to PHP800, unlike when they are referred to the BGHMC, where patients are assured of zero expenses.

Brillantes added that looking at the breakthroughs and the implementation, there is a need to further boost and strengthen the information campaign so that the people would understand the system of referral but not be afraid of the cost under the Universal Health Care law, ensuring that health services will be availed of by all Filipinos.

Dr. Dominga Gadgad, regional vice president of PhilHealth-Cordillera, said during the open forum that the goal of the UHC is for everyone to be PhilHealth members who will benefit from it not only for treatment but also for their preventive care services.

She also urged the city health office to fast-track their procurement of equipment for services as well as medicine supplies, with all the city’s district health centers being PhilHealth and YAKAP (Yaman ng Kalusugan Program) providers. (PNA)