THE Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) should improve its reimbursement claims system for hospitals to prevent their closure from financial strain due to unremitted payments, a legislator said on Wednesday.

The state health insurer owes hospitals about P21 billion as of end-2024, PhilHealth Senior Vice-President Renato L. Limsiaco, Jr. told lawmakers during a House of Representatives hearing.

“PhilHealth’s so strict in denying claims that we’re squeezing the liquidity of hospitals, which in the end, forces them to close,” Marikina Rep. Stella Luz A. Quimbo said in Filipino at the same hearing.

Philippine hospitals file reimbursement claims to PhilHealth for the accrued costs of medical services provided to Filipinos, which is then deliberated by the state health insurer to determine its validity for compensation.

Processed claims which PhilHealth finds worthy of repayment are tagged as a “good claim,” according to a 2021 PhilHealth memorandum; while reimbursement requests seen as “deficient” are categorized into return-to-hospital (RTH) and denied claims, which leads to it being unpaid.

Most denied PhilHealth claims are due to the 60-day deadline limit for the filing of reimbursement requests, Department of Health (DoH) spokesman Albert Francis E. Domingo told lawmakers.

He said the Health department proposed to the PhilHealth board to extend the 60-day limit, allowing “denied claims to become good claims.”

“The Department of Health found that most of the denied claims were due to exceeding the 60-day deadline stipulated by law. However,… it was noted that the 60-day period may be extended due to reasonable reasons,” he said in mixed English and Filipino.

PhilHealth Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel R. Ledesma, Jr. said his agency would implement an “opinion” from the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) allowing them to pay hospitals if hospital claims are filed within 60 days.

“We just got the opinion from OGCC. So, we’re about to implement it,” he said.

PhilHealth has denied a total 483,000 claims from hospitals, totaling P4.7 billion for 2024 alone, according to Mr. Limsiaco.

“If we’re going to look into the RTH… for the year 2024, [it] reached 304,082, amounting to P4.2 billion,” he added. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio

HOUSE of Representatives Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez on Wednesday met with parliamentarians from Hungary, discussing “opportunities” for advancing bilateral relations.

In a statement, Mr. Romualdez said he met with Zsolt Attila Németh, foreign affairs chairman of Hungary’s parliament, and his delegation.

“It is a pleasure to meet Chairman Zsolt Németh and discuss the numerous opportunities to strengthen our partnership. Hungary has been a steadfast friend to the Philippines, and I look forward to further deepening our cooperation in the years to come,” he said in a statement.

“These visits reflect the strong diplomatic ties and mutual respect between our nations,” he added.

Mr. Németh said he’s optimistic that a Philippine-European Union free trade agreement (FTA) could be finalized this year, according to the statement. “Scoping meetings” for the FTA started in 2013, according to the Philippine Trade ministry.

The Hungarian lawmaker also proposed a possible conduct of joint training exercises between the two countries’ workforce, citing “high standard of work ethic” of Filipinos.

A “Philippines-Hungary Parliamentarians’ Friendship Group” between the two countries’ legislative chambers would also be established after the 2025 midterm elections, according to Mr. Romualdez. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is looking at expanding a proposed maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) for all rice varieties in a bid to lower rice prices quicker.

But it will first assess how the initial proposed MSRP for imported rice would play out before implementing a wider peak retail price on the staple food, Agriculture Undersecretary Asis G. Perez said on Wednesday.

The DA had set the MSRP at P58 per kilogram for imported rice with broken-grain content of 5%. The price ceiling is expected to take effect on Jan. 20, initially in Metro Manila.

“That’s being considered,” Mr. Perez said when he was asked by lawmakers about the possibility of broadening the rice cap.

“We started at P58 because we didn’t have prior experience,” he added. “Since this is like a pilot, we wanted to look at it and then analyze further how we can improve. But that’s part of the strategy.”

The Agriculture department noticed that retail prices for some imported rice brands remain elevated despite lower import tariffs.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. last year issued Executive Order No. 62 which slashed tariffs on rice imports to 15% from 35% previously until 2028.

The DA is also looking at possibly implementing a price cap for rice products if it finds the retail market prices to be “unreasonable,” according to Mr. Perez. “We’re even considering a price cap itself.”

In December, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported an average price for well-milled rice of P54.97 per kilo.

“However, right now, we’re not doing that yet. We only used what we call the suggested retail price,” he said.

Mr. Perez said they implemented an MSRP in the hopes of sparking a trickle-down effect on persistently expensive rice prices.

“The theory is, if there’s a cap on premium [rice], regular mills will follow,” he said.

Employing a MSRP for imported, premium rice could lead to cheaper rice, said Steven T. Cua, executive director of the Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets Association, supporting DA’s assertions.

“If the DA will come up with a statement saying that P58 for premium, I think everything below will go down,” he said.

Meanwhile, the National Price Coordinating Council is also looking at declaring that there is an “extraordinary increase” in rice prices, which would allow the Agriculture secretary to proclaim a food security emergency, said Cherryl G. Carbonel, a Department of Trade and Industry director.

“But we’re still working on the resolution,” she told lawmakers.

A food emergency declaration would allow Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. to release rice stocks held by the National Food Authority (NFA), which would increase the market supply of the staple food in a bid to bring down its retail prices.

Also on Wednesday, NFA Administrator Larry R. Lacson said they are looking to sell aging rice buffer stocks at P33 to P38 [per kilo] to local government units.

“Our current stocks at the NFA total around 700,000 bags of milled rice. Out of those, 300,000 can be considered aging or non-regular stocks,” he told lawmakers. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio

AN EDUCATION department official on Wednesday said the 2025 funding allotted for the Department of Education’s (DepEd) computerization program is insufficient.

“The present allocation of P2.4 billion would not even enable the DepEd to handle the mandatory need [for its computerization program], which amounts to P3.9 billion,” Marvin Dela Cruz, DepEd’s Technology Infrastructure Division chief, told lawmakers during a House of Representatives hearing.

It would cost the Education department P3.9 billion to fund “software and cloud subscription for all teachers and learners, capacity-building, [and] operation and personal expenses,” he added.

The Philippines Congress decided to cut DepEd’s computerization program fund for 2025 by about P10 billion, slashing it by 80.3% to P2.43 billion, according to Budget department documents.

The originally proposed P12 billion funding for this year would’ve been used to buy laptops and smart televisions (P7 billion), satellite-based internet devices (P1.5 billion), software subscriptions (P2.4 billion), and capacity-building purposes (P1.5 billion), according to DepEd’s presentation to the House basic education panel.

About P2.45 billion worth of laptops and smart televisions are now in the final process of procurement as of Jan. 13, owing to the agency’s “strategic use of early procurement activities,” the presentation stated.

“This alone would eat up the P2.4 billion appropriated for the whole ICT (information and communications technology) budget of the DepEd,” it added. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio

THE House of Representatives on Wednesday approved on second reading a bill establishing a special economic zone in the province of Camarines Norte.

In a voice vote, lawmakers agreed to House Bill (HB) No. 11200, which will create an economic zone in Jose Panganiban municipality in the province located southeast of the Philippine capital. A presidential proclamation would dictate the bounds of the Camarines Norte ecozone.

The bill would create the Camarines Norte Special Zone Authority (CNSEZA) to govern the province’s ecozone. It would have the power to supervise and regulate companies “in an efficient and decentralized manner.”

CNSEZA would have an authorized capital stock of P2 billion, with a minimum issuance price of P10 per stock. Its majority share should be subscribed by the national government and the local government units covering the ecozone.

HB No. 11200 authorizes CNSEZA to grant investor’s visas to foreigners who invest $200,000 “in a registered enterprise, either in case of equipment.” — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio