Will PhilHealth Cover COVID-19 Treatment?

PhilHealth has been a very big help when it comes to providing medical assistance for Filipino people since then and until now. Many Filipinos cannot afford hospitalization because of the expensive healthcare in the Philippines specifically those who are financially unstable. Luckily, PhilHealth got our back.

PhilHealth will release an initial P30 billion to accredited hospitals to help them fight the onslaught of COVID-19 in the Philippines.

As per PhilHealth: “They will reimburse hospital bills of COVID-19 patients”

They will reimburse the patients between February 01, 2020, and April 14, 2020.
In addition, patients who got admitted starting April 15, 2020, onwards will be under a new case rate benefits package.

Based on the PEP.ph interview with one of the recovered patients, they spent more than 1 million for just a moderate case of COVID-19. That leads us to a question, what more if the case is severe? How much the treatment will cost a person? So it’s very undeniable that we Filipinos fear the Coronavirus treatment cost more than the virus itself.
If you wanted to know how much COVID-19 treatment cost this might help.

Confinements from February 1 to April 14, 2020

All patients who got admitted from the said date which is February 1 to April 14, 2020, will be entitled to get a full refund. It includes testing, hospitalization, and treatment cost.

Hospitals are not supposed to charge COVID patients. However, due to some confusion, they are being charged, but PhilHealth assured all patients that they will be refunded. Patients just need to provide proof of treatment so that they will be able to file for a reimbursement claim.

In addition, PhilHealth implemented this because they wanted to help COVID patients and their families to focus on recovery instead of worrying how will they settle their hospital bills.

Confinements Starting April 15, 2020 onwards

At this moment, PhilHealth’s financial assistance is different from what they offer previously. The difference will depend on the case condition, but the same with the previous one, Philhealth’s objective is to provide assistance and promote assurance for faster recovery and avoid worrying that may cause things to get worse.

Here’s the new case rate:

COVID-19 testing – Php 2,710 – Php 8,150
Community isolation – Php 22,449
Mild pneumonia (elderly) – Php 43,997
Moderate pneumonia – Php 143,267
Severe pneumonia – Php 333,519
Critical pneumonia – Php 786,384

For additional information, you may consider contacting PhilHealth or you can also follow their social media accounts to be updated if they posted something related to this pandemic.

It is very hard staying at home doing nothing and not earning money. All of us are going through that situation, but exposing yourself to the public the higher the risk you might get infected. It will be a wise decision if you follow all the precautionary measures. Stay at home, wash hands regularly and practice social distancing.