One of the most overworked and underpaid professionals in the country serve in the medical field, this much can be said–and unfortunately, most of the time, they don’t really get what they deserve.
In the Philippines, HMOs or healthcare insurances are one of the go-to solutions for patients for their medical needs. Yet, what if those companies that aim to ease the financial burden of people cause problems for some healthcare professionals?
In a viral post made on Facebook, user Abe Micu shared how disheartened their family is about the system that healthcare card companies run.
In 2017, the Facebook user’s father, Dr. Carlomagno Micu, a dedicated physician, passed away. Even as health issues began to affect his ability to practice, his commitment to his patients never wavered.
Recently, in 2021, his family received a check from one of the known healthcare card companies in the Philippines for a professional fee of PHP350–payment for a patient Dr. Micu had seen back in 2016, a full year before his passing.
The user claims that the delayed payment is not an isolated incident; his family possesses numerous un-cashed checks from similar situations.
That it took the company six years to pay Dr. Micu’s professional fee highlights a significant issue within the healthcare system. The doctor had ceased his clinic duties in early 2017 due to his health issues, yet the payment for his 2016 services only arrived years later. This delay represents a system that takes an unreasonable amount of time to compensate doctors for their services, raising questions about the efficiency and reliability of healthcare cards and insurance companies.
The post also discussed how the situation explains why many physicians are reluctant to accept health cards or insurance cases. The reality is that doctors can end up waiting years for payments, sometimes long after they have stopped practicing or even passed away. The experience of Dr. Micu’s family is a testament to this troubling trend.
Despite the company being one of the more reliable health cards, the company still has significant delays, leaving hundreds of patients’ fees unpaid in doctors’ logbooks.
Many social media users echoed the sentiments through the comment section.
The HMO companies mentioned in the comments and the post itself have not released their statements as of this writing.
For patients, this underscores the importance of being considerate towards their health card-affiliated doctors.
This event is also a crucial reminder of the challenges faced by medical professionals in dealing with health card payments. It calls for greater accountability and efficiency from health card companies to ensure that doctors are fairly and promptly compensated for their invaluable services.
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