The PhilHealth Regional Office-9 (PhRO-9) has recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the KFI Center for Community Development Foundation, Inc. or KCCDFI to provide quality health insurance coverage to its partners/members and their qualified dependents.

KCCDFI is a non-government organization (NGO) which aims to help the rural poor in Mindanao by providing micro-financial services to enterprising women and men in various municipalities and cities in Western Mindanao, including the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Under the agreement, KCCDFI will facilitate the enrollment of its members in the entire ZAMBASULTA area to the National Health Insurance Program (NHIP) through PhilHealth’s Kalusugang Sigurado at Abot Kaya sa PhilHealth Insurance or KASAPI.

On the other hand, PhilHealth will provide quality health insurance benefits to partners / members of KASAPI and conduct a sustained information, education and communication campaign aimed at appraising them on the policies, rules and regulations relative to Program benefits, availment procedures and their rights and obligations under the Program.

KCCDFI is the first-ever NGO in Region-9 that has joined KASAPI, a PhilHealth’s partnership program with the organized groups which aims to expand the NHIP coverage of the workers from the informal sector.

The signing ceremony, which has held last September 4, 2010 at a hotel in Zamboanga City, was led by PhRO-9 officers, Romeo D. Alberto, Regional Vice President, Edgardo F. Faustino, Chief for the Field Operations Division and Maria Venus B. Giron, Head for the Marketing Section.

Mr. Rodolfo T. Quinday, Sr., President and Chief Executive Officer for KCCDFI, also graced the ceremony. Also present were Mercedes G. Faustino, Rhett Ray P. Quinday and Amado S. Magbanua, Operations Manager, Vice President and Treasurer for KCCDFI, respectively.

Alberto stressed, “we recognize the potential of the organized groups, such as KCCDFI, in fulfilling the mandate of the National Health Insurance Act of 1995 or Republic Act No. 7875, as amended by Republic Act No. 9241, which instituted the NHIP to ensure a sustainable, affordable, acceptable, available and accessible heath care services to all Filipinos.”

Quinday responded, “We recognize the need to include health insurance coverage for all our members and their dependents to effectively serve the best interest of the microfinance operations and its partners and we believe that our partnership with PhilHealth will help us achieve this goal.”

The agreement shall cover 23,000 KCCDFI members effective last quarter of this year. As Individually Paying Members (IPM) of PhilHealth, they are entitled to hospitalization benefits and special outpatient packages. The benefits are also extended to their qualified dependents which include their legal spouse, children below 21 years of age and parents 60 years old and above. – Public Affairs Unit, PhRO-9