The state health insurer Philippine Health Insurance Corp, or PhilHealth, needs to outsource its services to the private sector to curtail fraud while making its assistance more efficient and faster.

Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin, a former Health secretary, has put forward the idea of outsourcing PhilHealth services in order to streamline its administrative costs.

“We know that the process is slow because of the complications we are going through and then there are a few inefficiencies due to what happened in the past,” Garin said.

PhilHealth has been the subject of controversies and corruption allegations over the years.

Garin, however, believes this could be remedied through outsourcing.

PhilHealth, a tax-exempt government corporation attached to the Department of Health, was formed under the National Health Insurance Act of 1995 (RA 7875).

It is mandated to provide social health insurance coverage and affordable and accessible health care services to all Filipinos.

According to the House deputy majority leader, her pitch aims to make PhilHealth akin to private insurance health maintenance organizations or HMOs without a big increase in premium contributions.

“It won’t be cheap but it will be the same. The only difference is the efficiency,” Garin said.