KARUHATAN, Valenzuela City — In a bid to standardize hospital and doctors' professional fees to be charged to patients, health secretary Teodoro 'Ted' Herbosa is now considering a policy that would require hospitals to publicize the number of available charity beds for indigent patients and the upfront fees they might incur upon confinement.

According to the health chief, the Department of Health (DoH) "can issue an administrative order (for) hospitals to state that there are several beds open for charity beds” and to declare the expenses that patients have to pay for hospital and doctor's fees.

“It’s been a long time since we started pushing for private hospitals to post their tables of their standard fees on their facilities, so their patients would know the possible costs the moment they enter the facility. If they cannot afford it, then they will opt to go to another hospital,” Herbosa noted during a briefing with local officials led by Mayor Weslie 'Wes' Gatchalian in Valenzuela City.

Under Republic Act No. 1939, all government hospitals are mandated to allot 90 percent of their bed capacity for free or charity, with the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) shouldering the entire medical bill of indigent patients.

Meanwhile, private hospitals are required to allot at least 10 percent of their bed capacity as charity beds under DoH Administrative Order No. 2007-0041.

Despite the provisions of the law, however, Herbosa cited the 'complicated' billing system of private hospitals even as he noted that while procedures and rates of rooms or wards are published, professional fees vary from one physician to another.

“We have been studying to standardize the hospital fees and professional fees. But we have to strike a balance. We do not want private hospitals to get bankrupt, because they are filling the gaps of public hospitals,” he explained.

Meantime, the issue regarding charity beds in hospitals was triggered by reports of the so-called 'palit-ulo' controversy involving a private hospital in Valenzuela.

The scheme involves detaining the relatives of a patient for failing to settle their bills—a way to circumvent Republic Act No. 9439 that prohibits the detention of patients who have yet to pay their hospital bills from leaving hospital premises—or withholding the documents of patients due to unpaid bills.