For many years hospitals and accreditation bodies have been accused that not having enough accredited hospitals is a key reason why medical tourism in the Philippines has not taken off. So they have solved the problem by making it easier to get accredited. International accreditation is still a long way off, and may never happen for most hospitals, but national accreditation has become simple. To get basic accreditation all they have to do is sign a performance commitment.
For many years hospitals and accreditation bodies have been accused that not having enough accredited hospitals is a key reason why medical tourism in the Philippines has not taken off. So they have solved the problem by making it easier to get accredited.
International accreditation is still a long way off, and may never happen for most hospitals, but national accreditation has become simple. To get basic accreditation all they have to do is sign a performance commitment.
Many hospitals have failed to get accreditation as they did not meet PhilHealth rules of having enough medical personnel, hospital beds, facilities and equipment, and patient safety assurance, among others. No longer will they get checked, but all they have to do is sign that they are doing their best to get there. The insurer argues that this form of ” trust me – I am a doctor” will work as if they do not meet those commitments, they will get a telling off from the insurer.
For some of the one hundred and fifty hospitals this new deal is a lifesaver as they can now be eligible for reimbursement of hospital expenses and professional fees from PhiHealth.
The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) does not do the accreditation itself but uses the new Hospital Accreditation Commission (HAC).
To be fair to PhilHealth, they were forced into a corner by the Department of Health who had given all these hospitals licenses to operate and declared that such licences are equivalent to having PhilHealth accreditation. Of the estimated 1,600 hospitals across the country, only about 150 hospitals are still not accredited by PhilHealth, the majority of them are in rural areas.
New national accreditor HAC provides hospitals – private or public – with a third party accreditation. HAC now offers advanced participation accreditation as from February 2015 they will receive additional benefits compared to those under basic participation. 200 to 300 hospitals are expected to apply for the higher accreditation.
HAC is not a commercial body but a partnership between the Department of Health, PhilHealth, Philippine Medical Association, Philippine Hospital Association, and the Private Hospital Association of the Philippines.
The message for medical tourism is that hospital accreditation at a national or local level may often look convincing, but when drilled down into, is often very little guarantee even of basic medical standards.
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