Angeles City govt distributes PhilHealth cards to 1,313 indigent residents

• Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=794074
• Monday, August 17, 2015

(PNA), FFC/ZST/RKM/PS

ANGELES CITY, Pampanga, Aug. 17 (PNA) -- The city government distributed on Monday PhilHealth point-of-care (POC) cards to 1,313 beneficiaries from the city’s 33 villages.

City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan, together with local officials and village chiefs here, led the distribution of the POC cards that will aid indigent patients of Ospital ning Angeles (ONA) with their medical needs and hospital bills.

“The implementation of the POC program is part of the expansion of our social and quality health care services dedicated to the indigent constituents of our city,” Pamintuan said.

Through POC, he said that non-member patients will be entitled with automatic PhilHealth membership and insurance coverage that will ensure and facilitate their medical needs.

Beneficiaries enrolled under the city’s POC program will grant PhilHealth coverage to members starting on the first day of hospital admission.

Meanwhile, hospital bills, laboratory fees and medicines are free of charge under the No Balance Billing (NBB) policy, especially in government hospitals like ONA.

However, applicants for the POC program should undergo and pass the medical social worker’s assessment as an evaluation mechanism to prove the applicant’s indigency.

A total of PHP2,400 per beneficiary will be subsidized by the city government.

Councilor Alexander Indiongco, the city council’s committee chairperson for health, said that Angeles has allocated PHP8 million funding for the POC program.

In 2014, the city government has enrolled a total of 1,080 patients.