The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) launched an expanded primary care initiative on Friday.

PhilHealth Acting President and CEO Edwin Mercado said YAKAP: Yaman ng Kalusugan Program is an initiative reaffirming the government's commitment to protecting every Filipino's health and well-being.

"Illness can strike anyone -- it knows no time or age. To address this, we are expanding our Primary and Outpatient Care benefits," Mercado said in Filipino.

"With PhilHealth YAKAP, our President wants to make every Filipino feel that it is possible to overcome illness, it is possible to be free from illness," he added.

PhilHealth YAKAP was developed as an evolution of Konsultasyong Sulit at Tama (KONSULTA) to fold in other primary outpatient care initiatives of the state insurer.

It offers an expanded package of accessible health services, including medicines, check-ups and basic laboratory tests.

In the near term, cancer screening tests will be available for members free-of-charge at select hospitals through valid prescriptions from their accredited primary care providers.

Members will also be able to access 54 additional medicines under our strengthened PhilHealth Guaranteed Accessible Medications for Outpatient Treatment (GAMOT).

These benefits, components of the PhilHealth YAKAP, will be activated in the next few weeks.

"Along with this expansion, we are actively engaging with providers because what good is the benefit if no one is there to deliver the service?" Mercado continued.

"We want providers who have the ability to get accredited so that we can reach more Filipinos," he added.

To avail these benefits, Filipinos are encouraged to download the eGov mobile app for a convenient registration process to PhilHealth YAKAP.

Registration may also be conducted through other channels such as the PhilHealth Member Portal (www.philhealth.gov.ph), any PhilHealth Local Health Insurance Office nationwide, or the nearest PhilHealth-accredited Primary Care Provider.