MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), a government-owned health care financing corporation, has partnered with Globe Telecom in launching a nationwide awareness campaign for universal health care (UHC) called i-philhealthy.
The campaign is designed to encourage millions of unregistered Filipinos to join PhilHealth and enjoy its comprehensive services package including in-patient care, catastrophic coverage, ambulatory surgeries, maternal deliveries, and outpatient treatment for malaria and turberculosis.
“We are proud to be part of this important government undertaking since one of our development thrusts is to use Globe IT solutions, for instance, as an enabler in bringing access to universal health care to residents of even the remotest barangay,” Globe corporate social responsibility heaf Rob Nazal said.
He noted that for this partnership, Globe will offer relevant mobile and data solutions that will support dissemination of i-philhealthy campaign messages, encourage registration to PhilHealth by taking advantage of the ubiquitous presence of mobile phones in Filipino households, and provide activities that will sustain payment of PhilHealth premiums and availment of PhilHealth benefits.
PhilHealth chief operations officer Alexander Padilla also acknowledged the participation of Globe in the campaign. “Reliance on government and PhilHealth resources alone would inevitably delay the achievement of UHC which is an initiative that requires extensive fiscal, human, and capital resources, among others if it is to be completed by 2014. Hopefully, through i-philhealthy, we can address the need for social equity in the registration of all Filipinos under the National Health Insurance Program (NIHP). We thank Globe for giving us a chance to work together by being part of this program,” he said.
Aside from setting up an exhibit booth during the PhilHealth Public-Private Partnership (PPP) kick-off at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City, Globe will also provide LED announcements for the campaign as well as SMS (short messaging service) blasts to all Globe and TM subscribers within the prescribed registration dates and localities. The content of the SMS is yet to be determined by PhilHealth.
The regional i-philhealthy roadshows are scheduled as follows: Area 1 (North and Central Luzon), Sept. 12; Area 2 (Southern Luzon and Visayas), Sept. 19; and Area 3 (Mindanao), Sept. 26. Globe is also given an opportunity to host one of the events.
At the same time, Globe will set up a TxtConnect account for PhilHealth to be used for information dissemination. TxtConnect is a web-based service that allows an organization to broadcast text messages to its pre-registered recipient base, thus, reaching everyone simultaneously.
So far, only about two-thirds of the Philippine population is covered by PhilHealth, prompting the latter to seek help of the private sector in the campaign to register, educate, inform, and enroll the individually-paying and informal sector which is comprised of about 10 million Filipinos.