Contrary to the impression given to the public, the Malasakit Centers are neither medical care facilities nor one-stop shops for financial assistance to indigent patients.

The Malasakit Centers are post-confinement referral outlets for patients whose hospital and medical bills are not adequately covered by senior citizens discount, persons with disability discount and PhilHealth coverage.

These patients with unpaid balances go the Malasakit Centers for eventual referral to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Health (DOH), and the President’s Social Fund. 

Patients complain that most of the time the representatives of the concerned agencies are not in the Malasakit Centers because of the agencies’ lack of personnel.  

When the representatives of the agencies are present, they only evaluate the patient’s qualifications for financial assistance but they do not have the authority nor discretion to assess how much financial assistance will be given, for which reason the patients or their representatives are referred to the respective agencies’ mother units in the locality for assessment of the financial assistance. 

This referral set-up is repeated until the unpaid balance is fully paid by the participating agencies, so much so that patients or their relatives queue in long lines at the different mother units. 

The financial assistance to indigent patients is already covered by the Universal Health Care Act (R.A. No. 11223) and the referral system can be undertaken by the very hospital, with organic social workers, where the patient has been confined and treated without need for any intervention by the Malasakit Centers which have been used as partisan fronts. 

EDCEL C. LAGMAN