THE National Bureau of Investigation has filed criminal charges before the Department of Justice against seven officials and staff members of the Pasig City-based Tricity Medical Center for fraudulent claims from the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).
Sued for estafa in relation to falsification of public documents and for violation of Section 44 of Republic Act 7875, otherwise known as the National Health Insurance Act, are Enrico Cruz, hospital administrator and member of the hospital’s Board of Directors; physicians Gjay Lalu Ordinal, Froilan Antonio de Leon and Lourdes Rhoda Reyes Padilla; nurse Cherry Catalan Flores; Arlene Joy Sebuc, Tricity PhilHealth staff member; and Svend Agodilos Rances, hospital clerk.
The charges stemmed from information received by the NBI’s Anti-Graft Division alleging that Tricity has been fraudulently facilitating or claiming reimbursement from PhilHealth for its supposed hemodialysis patients, who turned out to be non-existent or have died, at the time of the supposed hemodialysis treatment.
“Thorough investigation conducted by the NBI Anti-Graft Division, which took more than a year, revealed that there were at least 318 fraudulent claims with a total amount of P824, 200 filed by Tricity Medical Center based on recorded dates of hemodialysis treatment after the deaths of patients,” the NBI complaint said.
