PhilHealth to cover outpatient cancer screening tests
Starting Aug. 14, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) will cover selected outpatient cancer screening tests under its new Yaman ng Kalusugan Program (Yakap).
This is a bid to encourage more Filipinos to undergo timely screening, reduce cancer-related deaths and ease financial burden on families.
“Through PhilHealth’s new benefit … we have expanded every Filipino’s access to the early detection of cancer,” PhilHealth president and chief executive officer Edwin Mercado said in a news release on Friday.
Coverage
He added that this will make early detection tests for breast, lung, liver and colorectal cancers more accessible to members nationwide.
The new package was launched at Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center in Manila, one of PhilHealth’s accredited screening facilities.
PhilHealth will cover the following under Yakap:
• Mammogram, P2,610
• Breast ultrasound, P1,350
• Low-dose chest CT scan, P7,220
• Alpha fetoprotein, P1,230
• Liver ultrasound, P960
• Colonoscopy, P23,640
To avail of the benefit, members must register at a PhilHealth Yakap Clinic, undergo a medical assessment and secure a doctor’s prescription referring them to an accredited cancer screening facility.
Leading cause
Estimates showed that cancer-related premature deaths, especially among family breadwinners, cost the economy about P35.3 billion annually.
Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death in the Philippines, with Globocan 2022 reporting nearly 189,000 new cases and over 113,000 deaths.
According to the World Health Organization, early detection can boost survival rates up to 99 percent for breast cancer and over 90 percent for cervical cancer.
