OWWA, PhilHealth Team Up to Offer New Medical Aid for OFWs
By RIE TAKUMI, GMA News
About 24 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are set to benefit from the supplemental medical assistance program being offered by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in cooperation with PhilHealth.
OWWA Administrator Rebecca Calzado and PhilHealth president and CEO Alexander Padilla inked a memorandum of agreement for the new financial assistance program dubbed as MEDplus on Thursday.
All OFWs who are members of both the OWWA and PhilHealth are eligible for MEDplus.
Approved by the OWWA Board of Trustees in September 2015, MEDplus will be available to OFWs diagnosed with and subsequently hospitalized due to a disease contracted in their country of employment.
MEDplus will match the benefit granted by PhilHealth to its members “under its case rate system” and may grant OFWs financial aid until they max out the P50,000 annual limit, which could be spread across multiple treatments.
Qualified OFWs who apply for MEDplus must submit the benefit claims notice (BNC) from PhilHealth to OWWA to receive aid.
OWWA will then use the BNCs to verify claims and look up OFW profiles on My PhilHealth, the online portal used by PhilHealth and its members to check their membership status with the insurance agency.
Filipinos abroad who wish to avail of MEDplus may send their hospital records to their kin in the Philippines to undergo the same process mentioned above.
Over 300 medical and surgical procedures qualify under MEDplus. The list of qualified procedures is available on the PhilHealth website.
Calzado said the implementing rules and regulations for MEDplus will be submitted within 60 days from the MOA signing.
OWWA sourced the P150 million initial budget for MEDplus from the $25 biannual contribution of its members. The budget may increase if the need arises next year. —KBK, GMA News
(Source: GMAnetwork.com)