DOH to discuss with DBM reforms in paying delayed health workers’ COVID-19 allowance

The Department of Health (DOH) said Monday it will sit with officials from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) this week to discuss reforms on how to pay the delayed COVID-19 special risk allowance of healthcare workers.

DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman has recommended measures to prevent further delays in the payment.

“For example, there would be these reforms on how we process our payments, removing MOAs (memorandum of agreements) and just have this centrally-managed disbursement of funds, and of course, looking at the targets because sometimes, we give a target but the local government, the private sector, and even the hospitals cannot comply with the timelines, so that the disbursements are being delayed,” Vergeire said in an interview on CNN Philippines.

Citing the DOH’s database, she said 805,000 healthcare workers from the local and national government and private sector are currently receiving and have yet to receive these allowances.

She said around P72 billion had been allocated under the 2023 national budget for the healthcare workers’ allowance— P52 billion of which are under the DOH’s unprogrammed funds, while P19 billion are under its programmed funds.

However, this amount is still not enough to pay for the arrears of DOH to the medical workers since 2021, according to Vergeire.

“This is not enough because we still have arrears from the 2021 implementation and also for 2022. Together with DBM and the Department of Finance, we discuss with the President, and we will have a meeting with the DBM this week so that we can be able to further forecast and be able to identify sources of funds for this lacking funds for our healthcare workers’ benefits,” she added.

In September last year, Vergeire said the DOH needed a P64 billion budget to supply the health workers’ benefits.

Due to the issue of delayed payments in COVID-19 response benefits and allowances, some health workers have opted to resign and look for another job while others left the country for overseas employment.

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Wednesday directed the continuous health allowances for medical workers despite the expiration of the state of calamity in the Philippines.

Vergeire said that the provision of COVID-19 special risk allowance to healthcare workers would remain until the state of public health emergency is lifted.—Giselle Ombay/AOL, GMA Integrated News