By ADELA DEYAEN WAYAS
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — PhilHealth-Cordillera seeks a dialogue with the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (LCMCo) on the remaining unremitted workers’ contributions.

Catalina Adawey , the Chief Social Insurance Officer of PhilHealth-Cordillera Collection Section in a weekly Kapihan confirmed that LCMCo’s still has to remit workers contributions for 2009 and November 2010. She added the November contributions amounts to P 620,000 while the 2009 amounts to P 1 million.

“Wala pa silang qualifying contribution sa mga empleyadong nagpa-ospital,” ([The company] has yet to submit their qualifying contributions for hospitalized employees) she added.

Adawey said LCMCo remitted P1.8 million on November for the August to October 2010 premiums however the attached reports were not clear. She added that the report of the company regarding their employees’ PhilHealth remittances is not updated.

“They were able to remit the premiums (for August-October 2010) however their report needs clarification,” Adawey said. She added that the company reported to have submitted the contributions for 1,639 employees.

In addition, Adawey pointed out that the company has yet to remit the contributions for the retrenched workers. She said the workers were retrenched sometime in November and the company has not yet submitted PhilHealth contributions for the said month. She reiterated that they hope to discuss these issues with the company.

Meanwhile, Atty Eric Mandiit, legal officer of PhilHealth, explained that they already had discussed payment terms with the company. He said they already negotiated with Lepanto payment terms in installment. He clarified however that PhilHealth has no condoning program.

Mandiit said companies whether big or small that do not comply with the scheduled remittances are being sent billing statements with corresponding due dates. It is still a criminal case and a violation to the PhilHealth law, he said. He explained that based on the implementing rules and regulation (IRR), in the initial billing statement, the company is given 20 days to comply; in the 1st initial statement a demand letter they are 15 days to comply; in the final demand they have10 days to comply.

Mandiit said PhilHealth will file charges should the company still fail to comply after the final demand. He added PhilHealth will wave the charges after the company complies but will still implement surcharges indicated in the IRR. # nordis.net