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Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Philhealth beefs up Primary Care Benefit Package

By Alfonso T. Ruda

DIPOLOG CITY - The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) has recently re-introduced its “Primary Care Benefit Package” under a new name called “TseKap” or Tamang Serbisyong Kalusugang Pampamilya.

Philhealth-Zamboanga del Norte head, Florencio Luyao, said TseKap aims to respond to the growing health care needs of Philhealth members especially the poor, and to make the said package more attractive to member-beneficiaries which include the indigents and sponsored members, members of organized groups, and land-based Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).

“Philhealth has also extended this benefit to the Department of Education (DepEd) last year as part of its pilot test,” Luyao said.

TseKap consists of essential services aimed at prevention, early detection of diseases and even interventions for healthy living which include consultations, visual inspection with acetic acid, regular blood pressure monitoring, regular breast examination, and health promotion like education on breastfeeding, counseling on lifestyle modification and smoking cessation.

Preventive services also cover body measurements and digital rectal examination while diagnostics such as complete blood count, urinalysis, fecalysis, sputum microscopy, fasting blood sugar, Lipid profile and chest x-ray are also available upon recommendation of the physician.

TseKap also provides medicines for asthma, acute gastroenteritis and no or mild dehydration pneumonia and urinary tract infection.

According to Luyao, 27 Rural Health Units (RHUs) and two authorized hospitals identified as Primary Care Benefits providers in the two cities and municipalities in the province have been accredited as TseKap providers.

Meanwhile, Luyao said, the company has also approved the inclusion of foster child or adopted child under Republic Act 10165, otherwise known as Foster Care Act of 2012 as additional dependents of the beneficiaries of the program.

To avail of the benefit, the member has only to submit the Foster Parent License (FPL) and Foster Child Placement Authority (FCPA) and medical certificate for the parents with disability that only depend on the member for his/her daily needs. (PIA9)