Ilonggos are encouraged to avail of the Konsultasyong Sulit at Tama (Konsulta) Package, a primary benefit provided by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) through 172 accredited providers in Western Visayas.

During the Kapihan sa Bagong Pilipinas forum here on Tuesday, PhilHealth Region VI Field Operations Division officer-in-charge Bien Paul Obordo said 126 of their providers are local government unit (LGU)-based, 41 are hospital-based, and five are private clinics.

The program has benefitted 189,150 members so far as of July, representing an accomplishment rate of 118 percent against their target of 160,306 for the period.

“Based on our data, PhilHealth has already paid around PHP72 million to our Konsulta providers in Region 6. Our target is 100 percent for all LGUs and cities. Eleven LGUs have not applied for accreditation,” he said.

He said availing the services is faster because there is a dedicated or separate lane for the Konsulta Package.

Members need to register with their provider of choice and set an appointment for faster transactions.

“We continue to market to include private providers to fill in the gap,” he said, adding that the current number of providers is not enough to cater to the more or less 8.2 million population of Western Visayas.

The Department of Health and local government units are requested to provide additional doctors to help in the implementation.

Part of the Konsulta Package is the PhilHealth Guaranteed Accessible Medications for Outpatient Treatment, where 32 more essential drugs and medicines have been added to the 21 existing available medicines.

“There are free maintenance medicines for patients with asthma, diabetes, and hypertension, among others, and laboratories as will be recommended by your provider,” the PhilHealth said.

Under the KonSulta program, members will be given access to free medical consultations, free health risk screening and assessment, free selected laboratory and diagnostic testing, and free selected drugs and medicines in line with their pre-existing condition.

The budget for every patient has been increased to PHP1,700 from the previous PHP500 because of the inclusion of mammogram, and upper abdominal and pelvic ultrasound in the package for early breast cancer detection. (PNA)