House panel approves bills for elderly healthcare and research center
A HOUSE panel has approved bills seeking to create specialized healthcare facilities for the elderly.
The House health committee approved “in principle” 13 measures aiming to establish the National Center for Geriatric Health and Research Institute, and will be drafting a substitute bill consolidating the different versions.
The existing National Center for Geriatric Health (NCGH) is an outpatient department of the state-owned Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center (JRRMMC) located in Manila.
It has been experiencing financial difficulties because it is not a stand-alone hospital and does not get its own funds from the national budget, according to the JRRMMC chief of medical professional staff Wenceslao S. Llauderes.
“Our problem as caretakers of this particular hospital and (considering there’s no existing Republic Act for this is that) we don’t have any capital outlay that we can use for,” Mr. Llauderes told the panel.
The operation of the NCGH is bankrolled using available funds from the JRRMC’s Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) budget.
Mr. Llauderes also said that the NCGH could not claim from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) because it is technically not an independent hospital accredited by the Department of Health (DoH).
“One [of the] basic needs for the hospital to apply for the PhilHealth accreditation is [that] we need to apply for the license to operate under the DoH so there are some requirements that we need to comply [with], and that’s the problem,” he said.
The House committee will look into PhilHealth’s assessment on the NCGH.
Milagros T. Barzaga, chief of hospital of the Dr. Eva Macaraeg-Macapagal National Center for Geriatric Health, reiterated that the consolidated bill must include a “provision of free consults with multidisciplinary services, medicines, and future admissions of geriatric patients, especially the poor.” — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz
