The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) denied the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Hospital’s allegation that the state-run agency owed it P180 million in reimbursements.
In an interview on DZMM, PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo Morales said the claim by UST Hospital had “no basis,” and the company had paid the hospital P400 million annually for the past five years, and even gave an P85-million advance last April 18 to help with its operations amid Covid-19.
“Hindi namin alam at hindi namin matunton kung saan galing ang P180 million na allegation nila… [w]e checked with our accountants at sa mga libro namin, wala talaga,” he said.
Morales said PhilHealth had sent a team of accountants to coordinate with UST Hospital.
On May 3, the Varsitarian, UST’s student publication, reported that the hospital had laid off some non-frontliner workers amid mounting losses.
On May 4, Fr. Napoleon Sipalay, head of Filipino Dominicans who run UST, held the retrenchments “in abeyance” until a review by the board of trustees on May 20. John Ezekiel J. Hirro