CIRCLE Forum in Eastern Visayas

The Region Eight Administrators League (REAL) CY 2013 1^st Quarter Assembly and Continuing Leadership Seminar has been moved from April 2, 2013 to April 16, 2013 at the Matapat Hall, Camp Ruperto Kangleon, Campetik, Palo, Leyte  to synergize with the Career Executive Service Board (CESB) activity, CES C.I.R.C.L.E. Forum in Region VIII.

Director Imelda Laceras of the Department of Budget and Management who is the president of REAL informed that the Creative Innovations and Reforms for Committed Leadership and Effectiveness (C.I.R.C.L.E.) Forum is a series of monthly, multi-sectoral fora conducted nationwide showcasing exemplary, pioneering and influential leaders from the CES and various fields of governance and development who interact with government executives in “hands-on” and interactive learning experiences while dissecting timely and important issues and concerns in governance and development.

These leaders distill and share their innovations, insights, lessons, practical know-how, and relevant experiences in achieving strategic institutional and sectoral outcomes and in realizing their personal goals from a professional and personal perspective while confronting day-to-day executive challenges, Director Laceras added. 

Director Laceras added that as a major career/ professional development program of the CES Career Development and Life-Long Learning Strategic Framework, the series earns credits for an executive who attends and completes it. It also promotes the CESB’s core objectives of providing meaningful, innovative and effective mechanisms for the personal and professional development of members of the CES, and for strengthening strategic networks and engagements with key sectors who share the same mission of improving governance, managing partnerships, and promoting development and change. 

The REAL headed by DBM Director Imelda C. Laceras is optimistic that this rare joint activity of the REAL and the CESB will not be missed by its members. 

 

Director Laceras expressed gratitude for the support of the members in all the REAL activities.

 

For concerns regarding the activity, the members may contact the head of the REAL Secretariat, Ms. Aleli N. Hernandez of DBM at telephone numbers 053-523-7456 and 053-325-7848. (PIA 8)

 

Ensuring ECC compliance in implementing $214.44-M Samar road project

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Eastern Visayas is closely monitoring the construction of the $214.44 million Secondary National Road Project in Samar Island municipalities to ensure adherence to the Environmental Compliance Certificate issued by the DENR Environmental Management Bureau.

DENR Regional Executive Director Manolito Ragub said that a Multi-partite Monitoring Team (MMT) has been organized to monitor compliance to the ECC. The team is led by Environmental Management Bureau Director Leticia Maceda as chairperson. 

The ongoing road development project, which is being undertaken by the Millennium Challenge Corporation in coordination with the DPWH, covers 222 kilometers (km) stretch in 15 municipalities in two Samar provinces. 

These are Paranas and Hinabangan in Samar; Taft, Sulat, San Julian, Borongan, maydolong, Balangkayan, Llorente, Hernani, MacArthur, Mercedes, Quinapondan, Salcedo and Guiuan in Eastern Samar. 

The project also traverses 134 villages with 23 km crossing the Samar Island Natural Park which hosts 1,267 globally significant species of plants and animals. 

Ragub said that it is the mandate of the DENR to ensure that the environment and ecological safety of human population will not be sacrificed in the course of development. 

“Although the completion of the Samar road project will bring in more benefits to the people, impacts of air and water pollution as well as cutting of trees and protection of biodiversity resources should be addressed and mitigated during the implementation process,” Ragub underscored. 

Major parameters included in the ECC are air and water pollution mitigation and replacement of planted and naturally grown trees that will be affected in the road widening. 

Meanwhile, Reynaldo Barra, engineer and chief of the Environmental Quality Division, said the MMT regularly conducts air and water quality monitoring in areas affected by the project. 

With regards to the cutting of trees along roadsides traversing the SINP, no cutting is being done unless clearance is secured from the DENR through the Protected Area Management Board, the policy-making and governing body of the SINP, Barra said. 

Other members of the MMT include the DENR Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officers of Samar and Eastern Samar; Community Environment and Natural Resources Officers of Catbalogan City, Dolores and Borongan in Eastern Samar; DENR SINP Protected Area Superintendent; Department of Public Works and Highways Region 8; Millennium Challenge Corporation Project Management Office; Millennium Challenge Account- Philippines and its Project Management Consultant; the Provincial Governments of Eastern Samar and Samar; the Mayors of the 15 concerned municipalities; and the non-government organization Road Watch (Bantay Lansangan).

Pilot-testing door to door delivery of pension in remote East Visayas towns

Starting the first quarter of this year, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is piloting the door-to-door delivery of social pension for indigent senior citizens in 10 remote municipalities of the region using services of the Philippine Postal Corporation (Philpost).  

The three-month pilot-testing will be for the deliver, on time, of cash grants, and for the efficient and cost-effective door-to-door delivery, DSWD Region 8 Director Remia Tapispisan said.

A total of 1,180 senior citizens from Limasawa in Southern Leyte; San Jose de Buan, Almagro, and Tagapul-an of Samar; Jipapad in Eastern Samar; and Silvino Lobos, Lapining, Gamay, San Vicente, and Capul of Northern Samar, will receive the quarterly stipend of P1,500 right in their own homes.

It was learned that the signing of the memorandum of agreement was conducted recently between the DSWD Field Office 8 and the Philippine Postal Corporation for the three-month mode delivery of pension.

The DSWD is the lead agency in the implementation of the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizen, while Philpost has a facility that can service the regionwide distribution of cash grants to beneficiaries who are indigent senior citizens residing in far-flung areas as priority target beneficiaries for the door-to-door delivery.

When the Social Pension Program started in 2011, the DSWD Field Office-8 conducted the distribution at the municipal plaza, and in other areas, and then the agency transferred the funds to the local government units for the latter to handle the giving out of cash grants.

This time, there will be three modes of cash distribution: through the transfer of funds to the local government units, Philpost door-to-door payout, and the Special Disbursing Officers (SDOs) who will go to the municipalities to give the stipend of the social pensioners.

According to Rose Fe Valeriano of the Social Pension Program, the 10 identified municipalities for the door-to-door delivery of social pension are the most hard-to-reach areas by the SDOs.

She added that these officers will take over the disbursing of funds to several municipalities as there are identified LGUs with bad track records in liquidating funds. The SDOs will also take charge in visiting and personally handing out the pension of the bedridden social pension beneficiaries.

“Sometimes it took one to two months for the beneficiary to receive the stipend. It takes that long because in every province, there is only one SDO that disburses the pension except for Leyte which has two SDOs.

The DSWD hopes that with the new mode of payment, the implementation of the Social Pension Program, will be improved and fast tracked.

The government is always finding ways and systems to improve the delivery of social services to the needy public, the DSWD director said.

In far flung and island municipalities, 100 percent of the stipend received by the pensioners was spent for food according to Municipal Social Welfare and Development officers (MSWDOs) and barangay officials. The social pension is changing the lives of indigent beneficiaries, as it allows them to afford to buy food for their daily subsistence and medical needs, it was also learned.

Moreover, the social pension has encouraged senior citizens to stay active and motivated in participating activities for the elderly.

Forging partnerships to intensify campaign vs health care fraud

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation or PhilHealth in short, is set to conduct on April 4 at the Oriental Hotel Leyte, a Regional Multi-Sectoral Anti-Fraud Awareness Forum aimed at promoting awareness among health care providers and other stakeholders the significance of its anti-fraud program.

PhilHealth Regional Vice President Walter Bacareza informed that the forum will foster public-private partnership with various stakeholders in the fight against health care fraud.

“We have invited our partner health care providers, government agencies, local government units, non-government organizations, civil society organizations, medical societies and accredited collection agencies to join us in this activity,” VP Bacareza said.

No less than Health Secretary Enrique Ona, the OIC President and CEO of PhilHealth and the members of the board of directors are expected to attend the Forum to share their perspective on the anti-fraud campaign, the Regional Vice President of PhilHealth added.

It may be recalled that allegations of fraud crop up every now and then in the country’s health insurance system. Together with abuse and adverse selection, they comprise the triple threat that could potentially compromise the viability and sustainability of social health insurance schemes.

Fraud and abuse in health care come in various forms. In the old Medicare program, documents and signatures of members were purchased; and/or claims were manufactured and submitted for non-existent admissions. These so-called “ghost” admissions unfortunately almost always involved hospitals. Related to these were “family or barangay confinements” wherein several family members or members of the same barangay were admitted at the same time despite the absence of epidemics.

It was learned that another phenomenon is the recycling of patients wherein a “cycle of admission” is observed. Here, members were usually admitted for acute illnesses, re-admitted after a few weeks or months in the same or nearby hospital, and then admitted again in either of the hospitals.

There were the “weekend confinements” where at least 50% of claims submitted by hospitals are incidentally admitted on Fridays or Saturdays then discharged Sunday or early Monday. Interestingly, this is contradictory to the usual Filipino confinement preference – being discharged on a Friday and deferring elective admissions until after the weekend.

In addition, there are the routine fraudulent and abusive practices which include declaring non-dependents as dependents; borrowing of identity; confirming eligibility despite being ineligible, up-coding of disease and procedure codes; and falsifying diagnosis and confinement dates.

There are also schemes referred to as the worst manifestation of adverse selection anywhere in the world. Adverse selection is a technical term that describes behavior in a “voluntary” health insurance system scheme wherein those who are most likely to require hospital care are those who join the scheme. This behavior, which compromises the insurance fund, has prompted country after country all over the world to make membership mandatory.

The National Health Insurance Act of 1995 that created PhilHealth has long stated that membership is mandatory. However, while this provision has been implemented for most part of the formal sector,  it is not yet  fully mandatory for the whole informal sector.

This has resulted to the unethical practice of “patient recruitment” wherein health care providers themselves pay the premium of patients whom they will then treat once the patient has become eligible for benefits. In PhilHealth’s case, eligibility usually takes effect 6 months after premiums were paid for the first three months. For elective surgeries of self-paying members, eligibility vests after 9 months.

Faced with the challenge to minimize and eventually prevent these practices, PhilHealth set up a Fraud Prevention and Detection Unit, now called the Fact Finding Investigation and Enforcement Department.

Together with the legal units in the regional offices, it is working hard to build cases against fraudulent and abusive health care providers. Fifty anti-fraud personnel have been deployed for intensive daily monitoring of ‘tagged’ health care providers.  Moreover, a total of 530 PhilHealth CARES nurses are present on hospital grounds to help ensure that only accurate information on diagnosis and treatment are submitted by providers.

The Prosecution Department has proactively filed cases against several erring hospitals and doctors and PhilHealth is committed that these cases will be quickly acted upon.

PhilHealth is also partnering with health information technology providers to make electronic claims submission a reality soon.