Tubod, Lanao del Norte – A check amounting to more than three-million pesos was turned-over by the Department of Health (DOH) Center for Health and Development Region 10 last April 20 to the provincial government of Lanao del Norte as payment for the PhilHealth premiums of indigent families.


The amount represents insurance premiums for 5,046 families enrolled under the Provincial Health Indigency Program (PHIP) of Governor Khalid Dimaporo.


Presently, there are more than 94 thousand beneficiaries of PHIP throughout the province.


“The PHIP is a vital help to the poor residents of Lanao del Norte. It assures them of quality healthcare services whenever a member of their family gets sick”, Provincial Administrator Joselito Quibranza expressed.


The DOH has allotted 6,046 slots for Lanao del Norte indigent families set for enrolment in the PHIP project of Governor Dimaporo. However, as of presstime only 5,046 slots have been filled up. A thousand families are yet to be screened and enrolled to the program before the end of 2011.


“Priority will be given to the families included in the National Household Targeting System of DSWD because these families are the poorest of the poor and it’s them who need help the most”, Quibranza explained.


The Department of Health is also supporting similar healthcare programs of other cities and provinces but the province of Lanao del Norte sets the record for the most number of availments in northern Mindanao. LAR/VNL-PIO/LDN