PhilHealth assures dengue coverage amid rising cases

Amid the increase of dengue cases in the country, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) reiterated Sunday that it offers benefit packages for patients who were infected by the virus, whether they were admitted in the hospital or not.

Israel Francis Pargas, PhilHealth Senior Vice President for Health Finance Policy Sector said the health state insurer has three benefit packages available for those who have dengue.

"Unang una, meron tayong tinatawag na primary care benefit o Konsulta. Kung ikaw ay nakalista o naka-register sa ating Konsulta provider, puwede kayong magpa-konsulta o magpa-checkup nang libre. At kung kailangan gawan ng laboratory or eksaminasyon sa dugo… 'yan ay libre na makukuha sa ating mga Konsulta provider," he said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.

(First, we have a primary care benefit or Konsulta. If you are registered with our Konsulta provider, you can have a consultation or checkup for free. And if you need to do a laboratory test or blood examination... that can also be covered by our Konsulta providers.)

For those who need to be brought to emergency rooms due to symptoms such as high fever but do not need to be admitted, Pargas said PhilHealth also compensates for such cases under its outpatient emergency care benefit package.

The state health insurer likewise covers the hospitalization of those who have to be confined.

"Para sa admitted patient na merong diagnosis na dengue mild o dengue fever, ang ating benepisyo ay dati P10,000, ngayon ay itinaas na natin sa P19,500. At kung ito naman ay dengue severe or medyo malala na, ang ating benepisyo dati P16,000, ngayon ay P47,000 na," he added.

(For admitted patients with a diagnosis of dengue mild or dengue fever, our benefit increased from P10,000 to P19,500. And if it is dengue severe or quite severe, our benefit was also raised from P16,000 to P47,000.)

'Slowdown' in cases

The Department of Health (DOH) said Friday it was observing a "slowdown" in the trend of dengue cases recorded over the past four weeks nationwide.

According to the agency, cases dipped by 5% from 15,904 infections on January 5 to 18, to 15,134 cases on January 19 to February 15.

Since the year started up to February 15, the DOH logged a total of 43,732 cases all over the country—56% higher than the 27,995 infections in the same period in 2024.

The case fatality rate, however, remained low at 0.38%.

Most dengue cases were found in three regions that account for more than half of cases nationwide: Calabarzon (9,113), National Capital Region (7,551), and Central Luzon (7,362).

Of these regions, 17 areas are considered dengue hotspots.

Data also showed that most cases involved children aged 10 to 14, as well as those aged 5 to 9. 

— VDV, GMA Integrated News