The total Health Emergency Allowance (HEA) obligation of P103.5 billion is now 90% paid, following the decision of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to fully fund the remaining P27.3 billion this year.
The Department of Health (DOH), as an implementing agency, has settled around 14.5 million claims from health workers.
In April of this year, DOH recorded around P23.4 billion worth of HEA obligations for 4.3 million claims that could not be paid due to budget constraints. After the DOH processed and granted appeals, this number rose to P 27.3 billion.
Last July, the President instructed Budget and Management Secretary Amenah Pangandaman to no longer wait for the General Appropriations Act of 2025 to pay this amount, and to process it this year.
The surplus fund balance or excess payments which PhilHealth returned to the national government provided the cash needed.
“Lumipat po mula sa bangko, papunta sa tao.”
“Ang sobrang bayad na ‘di naman nagamit at siyang isinauli ng PhilHealth ay naging pang pondo para sa HEA ng ating mga health workers. Lumipat po mula sa bangko, papunta sa tao,” Health Secretary Ted Herbosa said.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) thus immediately released a Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) to enable the DOH to fulfill the obligation. As of 20 September 2024, 64% of the additional P27.3 billion has already been disbursed.
Health facilities have been key players to the final payment of HEA to health workers themselves. DOH has listed 2,853 such facilities; checks have been issued to 2,070 (73%) of them.
“Sa ngalan ng ating mga COVID-19 frontliners, maraming salamat po.”
“Sa ngalan ng ating mga COVID-19 frontliners, maraming salamat po,” Herbosa added.
In compliance with Commission on Audit (COA) guidelines, the DOH is continually reminding 517 of them to finalize the Memorandum of Agreement or MOA, and 649 of them to completely liquidate previous payments.
Both health facilities and groups of health workers have publicly acknowledged receipt of their well-deserved HEA.
In an online human resources (HR) advisory, the Cardinal Santos Medical Center (CSMC) expressed its gratitude to the health chief for facilitating the payment of their HEA covering a 20-month period.
Health workers from the Gentri Medical Center in General Trias, Cavite also sent a video recording to the DOH where they thanked Marcos and Herbosa for facilitating the HEA payments.
