ILOILO 2nd District Rep. Kathryn Gorriceta on Tuesday questioned the soundness of the Department of Health’s (DOH) zero-balance billing (ZBB) plan considering there are only 83 DOH-retained hospitals catering to 116 million Filipinos.
Health Secretary Ted Herbosa said that ZBB was patterned after the policies of several government hospitals. “Bataan is one of them, Sultan Kudarat is one of them, South Cotabato is another one.”
Gorriceta argued that local government units (LGUs) with limited funding would struggle to sustain ZBB, adding that increased budgets for re-nationalized hospitals might be a more viable solution.
Herbosa acknowledged the practicality of the assessment. “The ability to maintain zero-balance billing is uneven across LGUs due to differences in local funding. We will study this further.”
Meanwhile, Asenso Pinoy Rep. Henry Oaminal Jr. tackled the issue of high doctor's fees.
Herbosa conceded that despite increased government funding, private sector costs, including professional fees, have continued to climb.
“Private sector costs have risen, partly due to increased salaries for health care workers and global supply chain issues,” he noted, adding that these factors further strain the financial sustainability of reforms like ZBB.
Applicability of zero-balance billing questioned
FPJ Panday Bayanihan Rep. Brian Poe questioned PhilHealth's budget and the use of its surplus funds.
Herbosa said that collection efficiency remains a challenge.
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“The DOH is working on improving the collection efficiency of PhilHealth, aiming to increase it from the current 80 percent to 90-95 percent, which would help stabilize the fund balance and support health care initiatives,” he said.
The Health System Enhancement to Address and Limit (HEAL) initiative of the DOH was also discussed during the session. HEAL aims to improve access to diagnostic and treatment services for Filipinos and enhance health system performance in addressing public health outbreaks.
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