Latest in YAKAPEight out of ten pharmacies accredited under PhilHealth’s Gamot medicine program are private businesses rather than government pharmacies—a deliberate design choice driven by the recognition that private pharmacies have the supply chain expertise to ensure medicines are reliably available when…
PhilHealth benefit payouts have surged from ₱83 billion in 2023 to ₱330 billion in 2025 and are on track to reach ₱420 billion this year, as the expansion of the Yakap primary care program and the Gamot medicine benefit drives more Filipinos to use their PhilHealth coverage, the state-run social…
The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has expanded its GAMOT medicine program from the original 21 medicines under the Konsulta program to 75 total, after adding 54 new medicines last year under the leadership of then-PhilHealth President and CEO Edwin Mercado, now the Secretary…
The Department of Health (DOH) will use telemedicine and roving health teams rather than fixed clinics to bring healthcare to geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, acknowledging that brick-and-mortar health facilities are not always feasible in island communities and remote barangays…
The Gamot program launched by PhilHealth under the leadership of then-President and CEO Edwin Mercado has ended the common practice of patients with chronic conditions buying only three days’ worth of maintenance medicines at a time because they could not afford a full month’s supply, PhilHealth…
Every municipality in the Philippines now has a doctor, ending decades of doctorless towns that left millions of rural Filipinos without access to basic medical care, Health Undersecretary Gloria Balboa said Saturday. Balboa made the statement in an interview on DZRH News program Special on…
The number of Yakap primary care clinics has surged from just 119 before the Marcos administration to more than 4,000 today, with the program now reaching 96% of all Philippine cities and municipalities, newly appointed Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) President and CEO Beverly…
Newly appointed Health Secretary Edwin Mercado revealed Saturday that the Department of Health (DOH) and Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) will no longer operate as two separate agencies but will merge their roadmaps under a single Unified National Agenda for Health, or UNA…
Tuberculosis cases in the Philippines are rebounding after years of decline, with multi-drug resistant and extensively drug-resistant strains on the rise—a trend the country’s top health insurer attributes largely to patients failing to complete their treatment despite medicines being provided for…
PhilHealth has expanded its primary care clinic network under the YAKAP program from just 119 accredited facilities in 2022 to 4,376 as of 2026 under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., with a target of reaching 5,000 clinics by the end of the year. In an interview on DZRH News…
PhilHealth benefit payments are projected to reach ₱378 billion in 2026, nearly tripling the ₱119 billion recorded in 2023, as the state health insurer accelerates coverage expansion under the Universal Health Care law, its president and chief executive officer said Saturday. PhilHealth President…
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