Lawyers of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) will file criminal charges against delinquent employers. With one of the major thrusts of the corporation for 2009, to intensify premium recovery efforts in all PhilHealth regional offices. Another reason is due to a number of complaints filed against employers for not remitting the premium contributions of their employees. In region 7 alone, there have been 35 companies as of August 2009 reported and monitored to have arrears with PhilHealth ranging from a thousand to as much as P400. Delinquent employers are identified through monitoring and comparing data from PhilHealth member accounts information system and treasury database, visitation of employer’s premises to determine its status of remittance, and complaints from employees.
Any employer who fails to remit its employees’ contribution will be issued a billing statement by the collection section of PhilHealth. The employer is expected to comply within a given period. If the employer fails to settle its arrears after due notices, the legal service sector will take legal action in accordance to the penal provisions of Article X of R.A. 7875 as amended and Sections 161 and 162 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of R.A. 7875.
