BusinessWorld Insights forum explored next steps in improving healthcare in the country 

By Angela Kiara S. Brillantes and Jomarc Angelo M. Corpuz, Special Features and Content Writers

Behind thriving communities and a progressing economy are people whose health are well taken care of by a strong healthcare system. This was stressed in the recent BusinessWorld Insights forum, themed “Elevating Philippine Healthcare,” last Jan. 27 at Dusit Thani Manila in Makati, which gathered industry experts and executives to explore further the potentials of the Philippine healthcare sector amid transforming mindsets on health and wellness.

Delivering the keynote address, Emmanuel R. Ledesma, Jr., president and chief executive officer of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), highlighted the sector’s recent successes year after the signing of the Universal Healthcare (UHC) Law, as well as the hurdles the sector currently faces.

“Six years ago, this landmark legislation was enacted, embodying our shared aspiration for accessible, equitable, and quality healthcare coverage for every Filipino. It has made significant strides in expanding coverage to all Filipinos and strengthening local health systems to ensure access to healthcare,” Mr. Ledesma said.

With the UHC in full swing, Mr. Ledesma shared that PhilHealth had made serious progress in expanding health coverage across the country. Last year, it achieved major milestones: increased its financial coverage twice in February (30%) and December (50%); managed a 95% increase in member benefits; enrolled 27 million individuals in the Konsulta Program; and processed P165 million for 15 million claims.

Furthermore, it has introduced 30 new benefit packages, among them breast cancer packages (with subsidy increased by 1,300%), heart attack packages (900%), stroke packages (1,629%), hemodialysis package (144%), and peritoneal package (400%) — all in the span of two years.

Nonetheless, Mr. Ledesma acknowledged serious gaps in resource allocation and accessibility of healthcare services — a challenge that many communities face, especially in rural and isolated areas.

The PhilHealth president stressed the need for building a robust healthcare infrastructure, including more hospitals and more modern equipment; as well as for supporting healthcare workers and professionals by establishing a strong support system for them.

“These dedicated professionals are the backbone of our healthcare systems and comprise the indispensable nuts and bolts of the National Health Insurance Program,” Mr. Ledesma said. “Investing in their welfare is investing in a happier, healthier and more resilient nation, one that stands ready to face any public health challenge with courage and competence.”

Investing in healthcare workers

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Investing and supporting the people making up and running the healthcare system is among the top actions raised in the forum.

During the first panel discussion, Dr. Raymond Francis Sarmiento, chief medical informatics officer of mWell and Metro Pacific Investment Corp. (MPIC), shared three key things to be considered when investing in healthcare workers: training and capacity-building, equitable distribution of healthcare workers, and incentivization.

Dr. Stuart Bennett, president and group CEO at the Medical City, advocates for a strategy that integrates efficient doctors and tech-driven solutions. For him, such strategy is a faster route in terms elevating healthcare in the country.

“In the short term, we need to have more efficient doctors, we need to leverage technology, we need to have doctors who are working 9-5 in a single hospital or a single location and not spending half their time in traffic. We have to change a lot. If you could reduce the dependency on the highest input cost of healthcare and you can find a different way to deliver the same product, that’s a much better and more sustainable way to do it,” Mr. Bennett said.

For Karen Alparce-Villanueva, president of the Philippine Alliance of Patient Organizations (PAPO), investing in doctors is another key strategy in ensuring efficient and high-quality medical care.

“I think the government needs to invest in educating these doctors because in other countries, they’re subsidized or fully supported by the government. We need to look at retention strategies and incentivizing the doctors, particularly focusing on the primary care physicians so that more will go into primary care.”

Hurdling existing concerns

mWell’s Dr. Sarmiento also shared that there is still much work to be done in improving healthcare accessibility across the country, as recent numbers show.

“Several years ago, eight or nine out of 10 Filipinos die without seeing a doctor. Now it’s improved; it’s now six or seven. But, that’s also an indictment of how accessibility has not significantly improved in terms of being able to cater to a lot of Filipinos,” Dr. Sarmiento said during the forum’s panel discussion.

Moreover, Dr. Bennett of The Medical City pointed out that addressing the impact of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is essential as they lead to high medical costs and disruptions on patients’ daily lives. While such diseases are inevitable, there are ways to ease its burden on individuals, such as improving patient care management.

“Part of our strategy is really to focus on moving up the value chain in terms of non-communicable diseases and identifying patients that have NCDs earlier in the process and treating them properly. I think that the burden of disease around non-communicable diseases has to be dealt with but that will only happen if the cost of providing that care makes sense,” he said.

Collaboration between sectors remains an important tool in addressing healthcare’s pain points and elevating its potential in the years ahead.

“In terms of opportunities, there are multiple, but it really requires us to be able to work together with different agencies… more so on government, academe, the private sector, making sure that collaboration is there,” Dr. Sarmiento said.

“Through the partnership with not just the private sector, but also other NGOs and the government, we will be able to address some of the gaps in terms of health literacy and improving health-seeking behavior,” Ms. Alparce-Villanueva added.

Advanced mindsets

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The forum also touched on the changing perceptions on what entails wellness in the second panel discussion which also discussed preventive healthcare and functional medicine, as well as integrative and accessible healthcare solutions.

PhilSTAR Media Group (PMG) Executive Vice-President Lucien C. Dy Tioco shared that part of the company’s goal to help in nation-building is advocating for a positive approach to health.

“It’s about changing the mindsets about healthcare… We want to take on that role in the first step of making Filipinos more aware about their health,” he explained.

Speaking about the main obstacles that individuals experience in taking the first step toward taking better care of their health and wellness, Mr. Dy Tioco highlighted the generally negative approach that people have toward health itself.

“It’s becoming a concern in different sizes and forms. We talk about disease prevention, yet what we do on a daily basis does not totally contribute to one’s health… Generally, everyone’s wish is to live a long and healthy life. In order for us to do that, it takes a lot of collaboration, a lot of advocates that we can influence, and urgency in promoting a more holistic approach toward health,” he said.

In promoting such approach, Mr. Dy Tioco unveiled PMG’s latest advocacy program, the “Joyful Wellness” campaign, which seeks to bring joy to the Filipino mindset about health. The spectrum that the campaign covers includes nutrition, disease prevention, beauty, health technology, mental health, and more.

Currently, the program is offering the “Better You” journal, a personal guide to better health for a more joyful life, packed with expert advice and helps keep track of the user’s health journey.

Mitch Genato, CEO of the Romlas Health Group Group, spoke about the mindset of prevention, serious investments in healthcare, and moving towards principles supported by functional medicine.

“We have to start looking at where the ball is heading. No amount of budget in the field of health will be able to cover the rising costs to be able to manage healthcare in the country. This is where I feel that our proposition as a group becomes very relevant in how we partner with our friends and partner institutions,” he said.

Mr. Genato also talked about how functional medicine as well as holistic wellness approaches can help bridge the gap between health awareness and actual practice in the Philippines.

“Functional medicine is not a specialty. It’s a paradigm of care where we look at the root cause [and] respect the individualism of the individual; and it complements the population-based model of the hospital system. When you combine a very personalized view of an individual with a population-based kind of care, then we have better efficiency,” he explained.

Mr. Genato also emphasized the role of the Filipino public in making healthcare better, along with encouraging healthcare practitioners to advocate for healthier diets and better habits.

“There is no better advocate than someone who’s gone through the journey themselves. I believe that the public can become more involved by taking on goals in the healthcare system by being advocates and champions. But, then, it’s also important for us to be able to be role models. Coaching is more of a language than a profession,” he noted.

Rooted in her experience as a doctor, Alaga Health Co-Founder Dr. Via Galban shared her advocacy of helping institutions that are not necessarily health-oriented but have a business in health.

“A health problem can become a part of a very large problem that is rooted in the community, and that is why we wanted to create Alaga Health… We believe that getting better is done together,” Ms. Galban said.

Ms. Galban also advocated integrating non-medical ways of dealing with medical problems in the healthcare system by looking at different disciplines in making solutions and by expanding solutions to reach more people.

“It’s time for us to democratize medicine and healthcare, especially when it comes to not only adapting more solutions but actually adapting more perspectives when it comes to healthcare,” she concluded.

Interoperable network

The forum also tackled the digital aspect of healthcare with Dr. Alvin B. Marcelo, a medical informatics expert from UP Manila Standards & Interoperability Laboratory.

In his presentation, he talked about the challenges of creating information systems that work inside health facilities, across facilities, and across provinces until the data eventually reaches the National Health Repository of the Department of Health (DoH).

“There’s potential for interoperability. If all the facilities in a province or a healthcare provider network is open health information exchange (HIE)-compliant, then they will be able to securely exchange data of a patient as the patient is traversing that local healthcare network,” Mr. Marcelo explained.

The medical informatics expert also spoke on the state of healthcare digitalization in the country, how the Philippines is faring compared to other countries, and what the government can improve.

“We have the eGov App, but there’s no health data yet inside. We might be two notches below Malaysia and Indonesia; but because of the efforts of the Philippine Statistics Authority, the potential of a Filipino getting data from another facility in their eGov App is much more realistic now than two years ago. But, we’re not there yet; they just need to keep going at it,” Mr. Marcelo said.

Reaching rural and remote areas is another talking point the expert touched on. He explained that people need to be trained, the facilities need to be available, and that telecommunications companies need to meet the village networks midway.

“The DoH can develop telemedicine protocols, and they have. But, it’s not practical if there’s no connectivity in the remote area. So, partnership with the DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology) is really crucial to make that work,” Mr. Marcelo said.

He advocated for players in the healthcare industry and other stakeholders to have frequent conversations about collaborating to create more solutions for Filipinos.

“I think the next step is really to form that network because government alone cannot do everything by itself. They can only do so much, and after that, we’ll have to take care of ourselves,” Mr. Marcelo said.

This BusinessWorld Insights forum was presented with the support of gold sponsor mWell; silver sponsor The Medical City; bronze sponsors Sun Life and Intellicare; partners Asian Consulting Group, American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, British Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Bank Marketing Association of the Philippines, Management Association of the Philippines, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Philippine Franchise Association, and Philippine Retailers Association; and official media partner The Philippine STAR.