Teachers now covered by expanded PhilHealth package

MANILA, Philippines - Teachers and other personnel of the Department of Education (DepEd) will now be covered by the expanded Primary Care Benefit 1 (PCB1) package of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

PhilHealth said the program’s expansion is in support of the government’s health agenda, Kalusugan Pangkalahatan, to provide universal health care to all Filipinos.

Published in The STAR Tuesday, Circular No. 0010-s2013 showed that the PCB1, the new PhilHealth outpatient benefit, initially for sponsored and organized members, was expanded to the employed sector.

“As a pilot test, the corporation aims to expand the provision of this package to the personnel of DepEd,” the circular said.

The PCB1 covers services like visual inspection with acetic acid, digital rectal examination, body measurements, periodic clinical breast examination, regular blood pressure measurement, and counseling for lifestyle modification.

Others are complete blood count, urinalysis, fecalysis, sputum microscopy, fasting blood sugar, lipid profile and chest X-ray.

The PBC1 provider shall be paid a per family payment rate of P500 annually for each DepEd employee enrolled, enlisted and profiled.