PhilHealth crafting policy to extend 90-day free dialysis

The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is now working on how it can extend the beyond 90 sessions the coverage for dialysis patients amid claims that some dialysis centers reject PhilHealth cards of patients who have exhausted their covered treatments.

“PhilHealth’s new management transition team is urgently working on the appropriate policy that will afford extension of coverage to patients availing of dialysis sessions beyond the 90-days limit per year,’ the state insurer said in a statement Wednesday.

“It is also in consultation with various stakeholders on the matter,” it said.

The Dialysis PH Support Group Inc., last week lamented how some dialysis centers reject the PhilHealth cards of patients who have availed over 90 dialysis sessions. 

Dialysis Support Group President Reynaldo Abacan Jr. noted that under the Bayanihan 2, the privilege to avail free dialysis sessions should last until December as there was still a public health emergency.

The regular coverage for dialysis patients is up to 90 days or 90 sessions per calendar year.

The coverage, however, was extended when President Rodrigo Duterte declared a state of calamity due to COVID-19 pandemic for six months in March.

Apart from the coverage of dialysis patient-members beyond 90 days, regular members’ 45 days of coverage per calendar year was extended by the declaration of state of calamity.

In September, Duterte extended the state of calamity for one year, from September 13, 2020 to September 12, 2021.

This means that even if patients have used up their allotted days of insurance coverage during the period, PhilHealth is obligated to pay for the additional sessions.

The PhilHealth appealed for more patience and understanding from the public “as it exerts best effort to be of further help to patients needing this life-saving treatment especially at this time of the pandemic.” — RSJ, GMA News