Philippine Red Cross stops conducting COVID-19 tests due to P930-M PhilHealth debt

The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) stopped conducting free coronavirus tests for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), medical frontliners, and other Filipinos starting Thursday, October 15, due to the state health insurer’s P930-million ($19.14-million) debt to the PRC.

These “free” tests had been funded by the embattled Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), but the Red Cross stopped these due to PhilHealth’s “inability to settle its ever-increasing outstanding balance.”

“This is a difficult decision to a humanitarian organization such as the PRC to make but it has to be made. The PRC does not have unlimited resources to replenish the testing kits for its laboratories unless PhilHealth, its major creditor, settles its lawful obligations to PRC,” the PRC said in a statement dated Wednesday, October 14, but released to the media on Thursday.

The PRC will no longer accept specimens from the following:

• overseas Filipino workers
• individuals arriving in airports and seaports
• individuals through the mega swabbing facilities and through local government units (LGU)
• medical frontliners and government workers
• others included in the Department of Health’s (DOH) expanded testing protocol.

This is until PhilHealth settles its outstanding balance of P930,993,000 to PRC.

“The PRC needs the resources to procure test kits and reagents from China. Each of these order require about $6 million per order,” the PRC said.

Meanwhile, the PRC will continue to test samples from the following:

• individuals who booked testing through their hotlines
• private companies and organizations
• LGUs and other government agencies with testing agreement with PRC and whose payments are up to date

PRC said that it was in constant communication with PhilHealth management requesting and following up payment since the state health insurer’s last payment on September 8. “Not a single centavo has been paid since then,” the PRC added.

Here is the official statement from Philippine Red Cross