Senator Risa Hontiveros on Thursday reiterated the urgent need to pass a bill she filed back in 2022 that seeks to increase the punishment for hospital detention.
Hontiveros issued the statement following the complaints from family members of deceased patients allegedly barred from leaving a Valenzuela City hospital over their failure to pay their bills. (Read related story here.)
If true, she said these hospitals are brazenly committing crimes in broad daylight.
Hontiveros stressed it is clear in the law that hospital detention is prohibited and a violator can be detained and fined.
She said the Department of Health (DOH) must take immediate action on this and make sure incidents like these do not happen again.
Recognizing the need to impose stiffer penalties for hospital detention, Hontiveros previously filed Senate Bill No. 140 to increase the jail time and fine for officers or employees of health facilities, who were holding the patients and their relatives against their will
In her proposal, the penalty of imprisonment will be raised to six months and one day to up to two years and four months. The fine will also be increased between P100,000 to P300,000.
Under Republic Act 9439 or the current anti-hospital detention law, imprisonment is set at one month to six months, while the fine ranges between P20,000 to P50,000. The law only applies to indigent or ward patients and not to those who are admitted in private rooms.
Hontiveros’ bill also imposes an additional penalty of four to six years of imprisonment and/or a fine of P500,000 to P1 million for directors or officers, who make it a policy at their health facilities or instruct employees to hold patients.
Three repeated violations are all it takes for the DOH to revoke a health facility’s license to operate under the bill. The anti-hospital detention law was passed way back in 2007.
In addition to stiffer penalties, Hontiveros’ bill also seeks to allow guarantee letters from the Social Security System, Government Service Insurance System, or the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. to be used by patients who are members of these institutions instead of a mortgage or guarantee by a co-maker.
The bill also states that indigent patients can just present a guarantee letter from the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
It also creates a P100 million Anti-Hospital Detention Assistance Fund, which will be used to cover unpaid promissory notes issued by poor and indigent persons.
Funds for this will be charged against current appropriations and afterwards will be sourced from the Medical Assistance for Indigent Patients.