Health emergency allowance mapping still underway: DOH

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Health emergency allowance mapping still underway: DOH

Job Manahan,

ABS-CBN News

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Health workers at the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in Manila work through the long weekend on October 31, 2023. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News 

MANILA – The mapping for health workers’ allowances and benefits was underway, the Department of Health (DOH) has said, just as the budget department urged the agency to provide such so it could “provide its comprehensive status.”

Based on a document dated March 13, 2024 shared by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to reporters, the DOH told the DBM that it already created a health emergency allowance mapping that outlines "both the released funds and the remaining funds required.”

This came after the budget department earlier this month told the health department it has to streamline and submit a complete funds distribution for the health emergency allowance grant to qualified health facilities.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, in a letter dated March 8, said DOH has to “urgently finalize” the mapping as this was an important factor on whether or not they would need to release additional funding requirements for public health emergency benefits and allowances for health and non-health workers.

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“The said mapping will provide a comprehensive status of the PHEBA, which our departments shall use in expediting the final determination of the amount of deficiency to cover the full settlement of arrears,” said Pangandaman.

So far, the DOH said it had already released some P76.1 billion for the payment of health emergency allowances of health workers in the private and public sectors.

“This is to pay for 8,549,207 claims, covering the period July 1, 2021 to July 20, 2023,” the agency said in a statement released March 19.

This year, the national budget allotted some P19.9 billion for health emergency allowances, DOH said, with the agency already releasing P19.7 billion or 99 percent to qualified health facilities.

Despite this though, “the DOH still requires an estimated P27 billion to pay for arrears filed by the health facilities.”

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“The law requires DOH to have Memorandums of Agreement (MOAs) and to wait for full liquidation by these LGU and private hospitals of [health emergency allowance] funds already paid, before subsequent releases of additional funds. The Department has a list of these hospitals and health facilities with outstanding liquidation requirements,” the DOH statement read.

Nearly P91.3 billion has been released for Public Health Emergency Benefits and Allowances from 2020 to 2023, DBM said on Wednesday.

This includes, the agency noted, some P73.26 billion for Health Emergency Allowance/One COVID-19 Allowance (OCA).

The DOH said it continues to work with the DBM on health emergency allowances.

“We are ready to release the funds as soon as the concerned private and LGU hospitals will comply with the law that requires liquidation,” its recent statement read.





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