The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) on Tuesday, Oct. 10, urged accredited health facilities (HFs) to deduct the mandatory senior citizen discount from the final bill.

In an advisory, PhilHealth sounded the alarm after its management found that some accredited HFs refused to abide by the mandatory discounts for senior citizens’ total medical bills.

“As explicitly stipulated in Section B of the Performance Commitment for accreditation of healthcare professionals and facilities, accredited HFs shall follow all applicable laws, rules, regulations, policies, administrative orders, and issuances,” it said.

PhilHealth prompted every accredited HF to follow the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010 the Benefits andPrivileges of Persons with Disabilities.

“All accredited HFs shall follow the policies and guidelines of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), including those relevant to VAT implementation on the actual hospital charges,” it furthered.

The state insurer reminded its regional offices to implement the Healthcare Provider Performance Assessment System (HCP PAS) in monitoring the accredited HFs’ performance.