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Rhodina Villanueva - The Philippine Star
June 20, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) launched a new benefits package for post-kidney transplantation services yesterday, covering both adults and children with stage 5 chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Under the post-kidney transplant benefits, PhilHealth will shoulder the child patient’s immunosuppressive medications worth P73,065 monthly within the first year and medications worth P41,150 monthly in the succeeding years.
To prevent infection following the operation, the package for the child patient also includes P45,570 worth of drug prophylaxis or antibiotic that can be availed monthly.
Laboratory services worth P37,585 can be availed by the pediatric patient quarterly for the first year and P14,078 every three months for the same services in the succeeding years.
For adults 19 years old and above, benefits include P40,725 monthly for immunosuppressive medications and P18,932 for six months of medication.
They are also entitled to laboratory procedures worth P11,242 quarterly within the first year, and P8,125 every three months in the succeeding years.
Kidney donors will also receive P1,900 worth of laboratory services every six months.
At the launching of the new benefits package, President Marcos said Filipinos are fond of sweets, making them prone to diabetes, which may lead to kidney disease.
“Instead of putting on sugar or eating sweets, learn to eat the Ilocano diet. The one with bitter-tasting food like ampalaya (bitter gourd),” the President said.
“But this is a long-term plan that we would have to institute. We need the help of parents and teachers and those in the industries. Let us tell those preparing fast food to reduce the salt,” he added.
Marcos said the youth should understand that salty food won’t keep them healthy.
“But in any case, until we improve the situation in our children because of the people’s diet, we are here. PhilHealth is here,” he said.
CKD is a pressing global health issue, with prevalence of 9.1 percent to 13.4 percent of the population worldwide.
In the Philippines, its prevalence is 35.94 percent, which is much higher than estimated global rates.
The National Kidney and Transplant Institute said one Filipino develops chronic kidney failure every hour, equating to around 120 new cases per million population annually.
Benefit claims
PhilHealth has announced an 84-percent increase in benefit claims payment to accredited health facilities in the first five months of 2025.
As of May 31, PhilHealth has paid a total of P118.87 billion in benefit claims.
The number is 84 percent higher compared to the P64.6 billion benefit claims payment made during the same period in 2024.
Of the paid claims in 2025, a total of P69.6 billion were paid to private medical facilities.
Meanwhile, P49.27 billion was paid by PhilHealth to government hospitals and health facilities.
Earlier, PhilHealth president and CEO Edwin Mercado has vowed to implement faster claims processing and payment. – Alexis Romero
