It was always about the money

First it was the Marcos Cabinet that went after PhilHealth funds, falsely claiming a so-called “surplus” or excess unused funds that were from government contributions. In a matter of weeks if not days, the funds were transferred to Alibaba’s cave at the DOF.

Thanks to the Supreme Court, the justices nullified the claim of the DOF and the Marcos government and ordered them to return the funds, which were members’ contributions and not a government grant.

So far I have not heard of any of those officials going to jail nor have the funds been fully returned or restored. God willing the day will come when they face charges and pay the price for such a vile  misrepresentation.

With a lot of questions still to be answered, I am told by a medical practitioner that there is once again a new band of men in white but with less than pure intentions that have designs on tapping the PhilHealth funds and its zero-balance billing. Why?

My source informed me that due to the economic downturn, even private hospitals are not raking in the easy profits they used to make before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Things are so bad that some doctors are pressured to increase surgeries and hospital admittance, almost like a quota!

Operating costs and supplies have gone up, patients have sought required treatments at more affordable provincial hospitals. Others opt for out-patient treatment, others  self-medicate, while a large segment delay or avoid hospitalization as long as possible.

Private hospitals have become too expensive or unaffordable even for paying  patients, so much so that some doctors in private hospitals have made arrangements or directed their own patients to public hospitals where they also practice.

I have heard of some doctors giving a nod to patients who choose to go to Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand under the medical tourism system where many treatments or procedures are way cheaper than the elitist hospitals in Metro Manila.

So, what are the Men In White but with selfish intent doing in relation to the PhilHealth and the zero-balance billing set up?

My source informed me that there is now an active movement in some elitist hospitals to set-up PhilHealth designed and dedicated “wards” or floors where hospitalization and treatments can be covered by PhilHealth. So, what’s wrong with that? I asked.

The doctor told me that the hospital administrators did not suddenly develop morals and a conscience. It was always about the money! With everybody holding back spending, even on medical consultation and treatment, the administrators need a metal detector to find more money for stockholders and investors.

The PhilHealth has tons of money and is obligated to spend the money for member benefits. That, folks, is what is called a genuine “cash cow!”

Rather than run a hospital whose bookings are as bad as some hotels, it makes sense to free up or consolidate under-utilized hospital floors, areas and equipment for PhilHealth member beneficiaries where the money is a sure thing.

They don’t have to downgrade their hospitals; they just need to provide a floor or two for PhilHealth and they can have a reliable or steady source of several hundred millions per annum.

I think my source just wants to make sure that the elitist hospitals and administrators don’t get to crow that they are doing all this as a good deed and part of socialized medicine and getting credit for going after additional profit.

While it may still be in the future, this is as good a time as any for the medical field to take a long hard look at the future of medicine, even the future of physicians, because it is only a matter of time when social and political pressure will force a radical change in the field of public health.

The situation now is reminiscent of the state of public schools about 20 years ago, when public pressure pushed legislators and the administration to improve and invest in the public school system.

Since then, there are more buildings not wooden huts, better facilities, teachers’ salaries have greatly increased. All that ultimately led to a migration of private school teachers and students to the public school system.

In the same period, I have seen many local government units put up provincial, city and municipal hospitals and clinics. Now the government of Bongbong Marcos is under pressure to put up specialty hospitals in at least four if not all regions of the Philippines.

Yes, the headaches of hospital directors are not just reduced profits and dividends for shareholders. Slowly but surely they now have growing competition in and outside Metro Manila.

As I mentioned in a previous column, hospitals have also started losing income generating services such as dialysis, laboratory work for blood, urine and x-ray and physical therapy to mall located clinics.

Last but not least, the oppressive conditions and low salaries of private hospitals has triggered the migration of Filipino nurses abroad. The government wants to produce more nurses, but who will pay the P500,000 to P1.5 million to pay for their education?

Hospitals got too busy focusing on profits they forgot their social obligation to train and educate the future batch of doctors and nurses. Nursing costs money while being a doctor requires money to “lease” or be a partner in a hospital.

This is not medicine. It is commerce of the foulest kind.