Malacañang on Wednesday said there was “nothing irregular” with the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) in Davao receiving P326 million in reimbursements— the biggest amount for any hospital in the country— from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
PhilHealth legal counsel Roberto Labe Jr. on Tuesday told senators that SPMC was the top beneficiary under the state insurer’s Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM) for Covid-19 cases.
“We find nothing irregular in the PhilHealth IRM allocation of SPMC,” Palace spokesman Harry Roque said.
PhilHealth’s IRM provides hospitals with emergency funding to be used in the pandemic response.
In a statement, Roque explained that SPMC is the biggest government hospital facility in the country.
“SPMC, for the information of everyone, is a 1,500-bed hospital with almost 3,600 personnel,” he said.
The Davao hospital also houses stand-alone integrated specialty buildings, including the Heart Institute, the Institute for Women and Newborn Care, the Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Institute, the Cancer Institute, the Intensive Care Complex, and the main hospital for General Medicine and Surgery.
It has the biggest hemodialysis facility in the country, with 65 dialysis chairs.
Roque also pointed out that SPMC had 76,586 total admissions from last year in addition to 586,278 outpatients.
“Historically, SPMC has had the biggest amount of claims due to its regular provision of healthcare services to patients all over Mindanao,” Roque said.
“SPMC also has the highest PhilHealth income, breaking the billion mark. Its average income for 2018-2019 is P1.2-B and IRM is based on the monthly average or the track record of reimbursement for 2018-19,” he said.
As of Aug. 11, Davao Region has 1,572 Covid-19 cases recorded. John Ezekiel J. Hirro