City yet to pay P2.2M to 5 private hospitals

CEBU, Philippines - Almost six months after the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck parts of the Visayas and damaged several structures, including the condemned Cebu City Medical Center, the Cebu City Government still private hospitals P2.2 million.

The amount represents the bills of 38 CCMC patients who were transferred to private hospitals after the Oct. 15 earthquake, as the CCMC could not attend to them anymore after the old building was declared unsafe for occupancy.

In particular, the city government was billed P54,081.35 by Cebu Velez General Hospital for seven patients; P1,152,079.18 by Chong Hua Hospital  for 13 patients; P142,843.69 by Adventist Hospital-Cebu for 10 patients; P436,617.11 by Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital for four patients; and  P419,986.19 by Perpetual Succour Hospital for four patients.

 In its session last week, the Cebu City Council again deferred charging the P2.21 million in hospital bills to the city’s share of Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. funds.

Some council members earlier argued that the hospital bills exceeded the ceiling provided under the City Hospitalization Assistance Medicine Program, which only allows the city government to shoulder a maximum of P25,000 per patient.

City Councilor David Tumulak, though, has asked colleagues to approve the payment, saying “it is the responsibility of the city government to extend the needed assistance to these in-patients,” as their confinement at CCMC was disrupted by the earthquake.

Dr. Gloria Duterte, CCMC chief, has already sent a letter on March 21 responding to the request for clarifications sought by the council.

She  explained that the hospital expenses cannot be charged against last year’s Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund because it was already “fully exhausted when we processed the disbursement vouchers.”

 She said that it would be appropriate to charge the bills against the city’s share of PAGCOR funds since the incident was caused by a “natural calamity.”—/RHM(FREEMAN)