Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte on Thursday expressed relief over the government’s much-awaited release of the last tranche of the health emergency allowance (HEA) for healthcare workers who worked during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the same time, Villafuerte said he is hopeful the Department of Health (DOH) has completed by this time all the paperwork needed for it to pay out the long-due benefits due to the medical frontliners.
“We are keeping our fingers crossed that the DOH has wrapped up by now its nationwide mapping of the HCW- and non-HCW beneficiaries in every private hospital and LGUs, plus the actual amounts due each of them, because the speedy release of the long-due arrears to the Department’s regional offices, and then to the private hospitals and LGUs, is contingent on the timely completion of this huge paperwork, as had been recommended by the DBM, Villafuerte, senior vice chair of the House committee on appropriations, said.
“It’s already a year and two months after the WHO (World Health Organization) declared the worldwide health emergency spawned by Covid-19 as officially over, so it’s really time now for our medical frontliners during the three-year pandemic to get the economic benefits due them for their untold sacrifices to save lives back then,” Villafuerte, a lead author of the laws that had provided for such benefits to our medical frontliners during the Covid-19 health crisis, added.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released the remaining P27.453 billion HEA on July 5. The amount covers the 5,039,926 unpaid HEA and 4,283 COVID-19 sickness and death compensation claims of eligible healthcare and non-healthcare workers who served the country during the pandemic.
The DBM claimed earlier that the release to the intended beneficiaries of previous disbursements to cover the HEA claims were delayed because it had taken time for the DOH to complete the required documents pertaining to the number of beneficiaries, the amounts due them, and what LGUs or private hospitals they were stationed in.
Hence, prior to the release of the remaining P27 billion in unpaid benefits, the DBM recommended to the DOH earlier this year to undertake a nationwide mapping of the beneficiary-workers and their respective HEA claims to speed up the payouts to these HCWs and non-HCWs.
The DBM said this HEA mapping “will capture and present all PHEBA (Public Health Emergency Benefits and Allowances) and payments by region/health facilities for the period covered by the benefit. The information gathered from the HEA mapping shall be used in expediting final determination of the amount of deficiency to cover the full settlement of arrears,” said Villafuerte.
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