TACLOBAN CITY – The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation now allows the declaration of adoptive parents and stepparents as legal dependents of PhilHealth members.

This policy was adopted with the issuance of PhilHealth Circular 23,. Series of 2004, which defines stepparents as any individual who assumes legal responsibility of the biological child of his/her spouse whose earlier marriage was extinguished by either the death of the previous spouse or through annulment of marriage.

However, Atty. Reynaldo A. Capangpangan, Assistant Vice President of PhilHealth Regional Office 8 (PRO-8), clarified that a stepparent maybe declared dependent only in case of death of the biological parent.

An adoptive parent, on the other hand, is any individual who automatically assumes parental authority by operation of the legal adoption process. With the legal adoption, the adoptive child who is PhilHealth member can no longer consi0der hid biological parents as legal dependents.

The documentary requirements for declaring adoptive parents as dependents include a photocopy of the court decree of adoption or the birth certificate of the member wherein the adoption process has been annotated and the photocopy of the birth certificate of adoptive parents.

For stepparents, it is necessary to submit a photocopy of the marriage contract of the biological parent to the stepparent, photocopy of the birth certificate of the stepparent, photocopy of the birth certificate of the member and photocopy of the death certificate of the biological parent.

Under the national Health Insurance Program (PHIC), legal dependents are en titled to 45 days of confinement per year to be divided among the qualified dependents. They can also avail of the allowances for hospital room and board fees of attending physicians an outpatient services such as chemotherapy, hemodialysis, radiotherapy, cataract extraction and minor surgical procedures. These benefits may be availed of from any the 1, 542 PhilHealth-accredited hospitals nationwide.

With this policy, PhilHealth would be extending benefits to more beneficiaries to no additional cost to the member. “Ensuring the health of the PhilHealth members and their beneficiaries is one of PhilHealth’s major concerns,” Atty. Capangpangan said.

In 2003 alone, PRO 8 released P192 million for benefits payment, contributing to more than P10 billion paid for benefits nationwide of the same year.