Recruiter hits PhilHealth recording system for OFW payments

A recruitment industry leader urged the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) on Tuesday to expedite the setting up of a central database for membership payments of overseas Filipino workers.

“For years now, the PhilHealth is still working on its database network. The inefficiency of the recording system has already victimized a number of returning OFWs through 'double payment,' said Lito Soriano, a leader in the recruitment industry.

He said that some OFWs who returned to the Philippines in less than a year after departure were made to pay the PhilHealth premium again for failing to show their updated member's data record (MDR) card.

Soriano cited the case of Justice Artemio Panganiban’s son, who was made to pay the insurance premium again when, due to an emergency, he returned to the country a few months after his departure.

If the database was efficient, it would have been easy to check if the membership of the returning OFW has already expired or not, he said.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration requires returning OFWs to secure overseas employment certificates (OECs) before they are allowed to go back to their work abroad from vacation or from leave of absence.

As a matter of policy, the POEA would not issue an OEC without proof that an OFW had paid his or her PhilHealth contribution for the period covered by his or her work contract.

In an interview with GMANews.TV, Lorna Fajardo, acting president and chief executive officer of PhilHealth, admitted that the agency is still in the process of interlinking OFW members’ records.

“Of course, returning OFWs would not be made to pay for paid-up contributions again, if say, they returned to the country on the sixth month of their one-year premium coverage," she said.

“They have to show receipts or their updated MDRs to prove they had paid their contributions," she added.

When asked whether there is a way to check if a returning OFW is still eligible on the period of his return without the MDR, she said “that’s what we are trying to address with our computerization efforts." - GMANews.TV

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