TUGUEGARAO CITY, May 22 (PIA) — The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) Region 2 and Cagayan Valley Medical Center (CVMC), have signed a memorandum of agreement for the latter’s Individually Paying Program for Group (i-Group) program.

This initiative, which is considered to be the first in the region, paved way for the initial enrolment of at least 500 CVMC non-regular employees.

CVMC Chief Dr. Emmanuel Acluba said that program is part of the objective of the agency to provide their contractual and job order staff with PhilHealth coverage and enjoy the benefits that their regular employees are enjoying.

“With i-Group, they are now financially protected since PhilHealth takes part in paying for their hospital bill, if not, the whole amount of hospital expenses with the presence of case rate packages,” Acluba said.

Acluba said that they are planning to increase the number of benefactors to 700 for them to avail of premium discount.

Acluba said that this move is one of the strategies of the hospital towards providing its employees with financial risk protection in times of crisis.

PhilHealth Regional Vice-President for Region 2 Oscar Abadu, Jr. welcomed the initiative of the CVMC and applauded the organization for its support to the universal health care program of the Department of Health.

Abadu said that this is a good jumpstart in Region 2 as far as i-Group implementation is concerned.

Abadu also encouraged other associations, national agencies and local government units to register their members and non-regular employees.

The i-Group is an enhanced version of the earlier programs of PhilHealth Kalusugan Abot Kaya sa PhilHealth Insurance which was launched in 2006 and Philhealth Organized Group Interface which was introduced in 2003.