Problem in PhilHealth enrolment of pregnant women in Samar noted – Gov. Tan

CATBALOGAN CITY – There was a problem on enrolment for Philhealth of some pregnant women in the province of Samar, said Governor Sharee Ann Tan, which is why she’d asked for re-evaluation of all Philhealth members. “Some of them are not yet married and the membership was with their partner reason why they can’t avail to the services of Philhealth, because when using and claiming for the benefit of it, they need to present documents or proof that they are wives of the Philhealth card holder,” Gov. Tan explained. With this problem, the governor said that she issued an instructions to get the names of all pregnant women in her province and enroll them on Philhealth instead of their husband. “Right now we are concentrating on them,” said the lady governor who is also pregnant. She added that as part of the celebration of Samar Day, a whole-day enrollment for Philhealth membership will be held especially for pregnant women. Another problem that they are experiencing in Philhealth membership enrolment is that some of their constituents don’t know how to fill up the form, which is why she ordered those assigned in the barangay level on Philhealth membership enrolment, to assist them in signing the form “like they are conducting interview.” She added some of the married couple complained that they have no NSO certified copy of their marriage contract reason why they can’t avail of the services of Philhealth, which is why a certificate from the barangay assuring that the couple are living together is necessary. A duplication of membership among family members was also learned by her office after verification on all Philhealth membership, which they are now solving. “But as of the moment, no distribution of Philhealth card was done by the province because the agency said that they still need to fixed the card that are to be distributed because they had changes on administration,” she explained. “It’ll be by October that Philhealth will release cards to us,” she added. But for those who are already member of Philhealth, Tan said that they can freely enjoy all the benefits of the government health insurance program even without card when going to the hospital as a computer data base is already being used to check their Philhealth card number membership