Departing OFWs Reminded to Update PhilHealth Membership Before Leaving
By: Jet Villa, InterAksyon.com
August 8, 2015 10:25 AM
Departing OFWs (file)
MANILA, Philippines — Overseas Filipino workers should update their membership with the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. before leaving the country.
The reminder was made by Philhealth president and CEO Alex Padilla to dispel misconceptions that OFWs no longer need to pay their health insurance contributions after the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration began implementing a single collection policy on April 1.
“We want to emphasize among OFWs that PhilHealth membership is mandatory and that premium contributions may be paid through any of our accredited collecting partners nationwide prior to securing their overseas employment certificates,” Padilla said.
He stressed that OFWs and their dependents can use their PhilHealth membership when admitted to health care facilities overseas as long as the member records and premium contributions are up-to-date.
OFWs need to update their PhilHealth records when adding or removing a dependent, changing address, correcting the spelling of basic information entries, among others by filling up a PhilHealth Member Registration Form THAT can be downloaded from the website www.philhealth.gov.ph, and submit this to any of the agency’s regional or local health insurance offices or toofp@philhealth.gov.ph.
The annual premium contribution rate for land-based OFWs is P2,400. This includes coverage for all qualified legal dependents. This may be paid annually or depending on the length of duration of the employment contract, but not to exceed five years.
PhilHealth OFW-members may pay their premium contributions through any of the 5,000 plus accredited collecting agents nationwide, including the post office, and payment centers abroad.
Entitlement to health care benefits for OFWs and their legal dependents begins the day the premium is paid and remains effective for the period covered by the contribution.
PhilHealth’s case rate reimbursement covers for hospital room and board, drugs and medicines, laboratory exams, as well as operating room and professional fees for hospital confinements of not less than 24 hours.
It also covers an increasing number of outpatient services, such as day surgeries, radiotherapy, hemodialysis, and out-patient blood transfusion, among others.
OFWs and their qualified dependents are also entitled to Primary Care Benefit Package I, which includes consultations, diagnostics, preventive and promotive services without having to pay additional premiums.
Dependents include the OFW’s legal spouse who is not a PhilHealth member, or whose membership is inactive; children below 21 years of age who are unmarried and unemployed; children above 21 years old who are suffering from congenital or acquired illnesses that have rendered them totally dependent on the member; and parents below 60 with total disability and dependent on the OFW for subsistence.
As of December 2014, benefit availments by OFWs and their dependents reached P1.2 billion.