Balanga City, Bataan — The provincial government here — in cooperation with the Department of Health (DoH) — is seeking to upgrade the province’s health care system further improve services provided to Bataeños.

This comes as Bataan Governor Joet Garcia led the delegation at the DoH head office recently and met with Health Secretary Ted Herbosa, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) president and CEO Mandy Ladesma and DoH Assistant Secretary Albert Domingo to discuss the upgrade of the health care system.

Garcia discussed with Herbosa plans to upgrade the health care system of Bataan from Primary Care Provider Network (PCPN) to Health Care Provider Network (HCPN), where the DoH agreed to increase the application from P500 to P1,700.

“This increase in the benefits, from P500 to P1,700, will provide an advantage to all registered members of the Philhealth Konsulta program in the province,” Garcia said.

He added that the provincial government will continue to focus on the implementation of the program that will provide free medical check-up, free medicine, and laboratory for Bataeños, citing that this is another way to ensure that the health care of the province is excellent and affordable.

Meanwhile, during the special meeting of the Provincial Health Board, the governor discussed the results of his talks with the DoH and PhilHealth, citing that the Resolution 08 Series of 2024 has been approved.

The resolution approves the Annual Operational Plan (AOP) for 2025 in line with the Local Investment Plan for Health (LPIH) that will upgrade the health care system here.

“We were also acknowledged from the 2024 Regional Healthy Learning Institutions Awards for Basic Education Institutions as the Outstanding HLI Champion and Best Practice for our Bataan Healthy School Settings program,” Garcia said.