Dialysisfacility of Benguet General Hospital (File photo) MANILA-Senators are hoping for the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to implement soon its planned hemodialysis coverage expansion from 90 to 156 sessions. Senator Christopher Lawrence Go on Friday urged PhilHealth to use its funds to help more poor Filipinos pay for hemodialysis sessions. "Kung maaari, to the minimum na po ang babayaran nila. Kung maaari nga, eh libre. Ako po ay nananawagan sa PhilHealth na gawin pong mas mataas yung free dialysis sessions para sa mga mahihirap (If possible, they will pay the minimum. If possible, make it free. I am calling for PhilHealth to increase the free dialysis sessions for the poor)," Go told reporters in an interview at Barangay Marilag, Quezon City. Go, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, vowed to monitor the implementation of the free dialysis program of PhilHealth. Welcoming PhilHealth's pronouncement, Senate Deputy Minority Lea
MANILA- The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) will increase its coverage for outpatient hemodialysis from 90 sessions to 156 sessions this year. In a media forum on Wednesday, PhilHealth President and Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. said this is part of their commitment to implement enhancements in the benefit packages for 2023. "This increase in the number of sessions covered is based on standards for adequate dialysis which requires three four-hour sessions every week for chronic kidney disease Stage 5 patients," Ledesma said. PhilHealth Senior Vice President Israel Francis Pargas disclosed that they are targeting to issue the new policy officially before August as the current 90 sessions may end on around that month or the second semester of the year. "So, we have the time until the second sem to make surena 'yung156 mailabasnatin(that we can release the 156 [sessions])," he said. "We hope that by this first or second sem,