LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — The Benguet Provincial Board is seeking the help of the Senate for an emergency P100 million for medical assistance after funds were completely exhausted, threatening both indigent patient care and staff payroll.
Board Member Lady Charmaine Molintas-Likigan filed formal resolutions requesting P20 million each from Senators Francis Escudero, Mark Villar, Erwin Tulfo, Raffy Tulfo and Bong Go to fund five district hospitals and the Benguet General Hospital (BeGH).
The financial crisis came to light during a recent inspection by Molintas-Likigan and Gov. Melchor Diclas to monitor hospital operations after administrators of the different public hospitals reported that medical assistance program had entirely run out of money.
“Last week, Gov. Melchor Diclas and I went to Benguet General Hospital to monitor operations and check its financial status. On the financial aspect, the hospital management reported that our medical assistance fund has been completely exhausted,” Molintas-Likigan said.
According to Molintas-Likigan, BeGH’s P40 million medical assistance allocation previously secured by Rep. Eric Go Yap is already depleted leaving the local government scrambling to find alternative sources of funding to keep services running.
“That is why we are trying to source funds from other offices. The P40 million that came from Congressman Eric Yap has already been exhausted, so we are now asking other offices if they can also provide for our medical assistance fund,” Molintas-Likigan added.
While the Benguet provincial government provides a P60 million annual subsidy to BeGH, those funds are strictly limited to basic operating expenses. The medical assistance fund, managed under the Department of Health’s Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) program, offsets the bills of poor patients and generates the hospital revenue used to pay staff.
“This fund is also where we get the budget for the salaries and wages of the employees at Benguet General Hospital. The hospital’s concern is that without this medical assistance fund, they might not be able to sustain the payment of salaries and wages of the employees by the end of the year,” ,” Molintas-Likigan said. Jerome Jacy Cruz | UC Intern
