By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

PUBLIC Health Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez has ordered an investigation into the Commonwealth Health Center’s turning away of Top Fashion Corp. garment workers who were injured when police broke a barricade at the Tanapag garment factory on the night of May 7, Variety learned over the weekend.
Workers interviewed last week said when CHC personnel asked them who beat them up when they came in for treatment and they responded that it was police officers, they were refused treatment.
In another instance, according to the workers, CHC personnel refused to treat them “because we couldn’t pay.”
Villagomez, in an e-mail response to a Variety inquiry, said “under no circumstances will CHC turn away any patient that needs medical help.”
The public health secretary said CHC chief financial officer Esther Muna is looking into the reports of people being turned away.
He added that he has spoken to Federal Labor Ombudsman Jim Benedetto about the matter “and assured him that no one should have been turned away.”
“I did order an investigation into this matter immediately upon learning about the alleged turning away of patients. Once I get the report from the chief financial officer, I will review it and let the public know,” Villagomez said.
Benedetto earlier raised concerns over the turning away of workers by CHC. Benedetto met several times with Top Fashion workers last week to hear their concerns and to let them know of their rights, among other things.
The Department of Public Health, which has yet to collect about $99 million in receivables, implemented a new policy starting on April 2 in which CHC patients will be required to partially pay their bills upfront regardless of whether or not the patients have Medicare.
It stated that nonresident workers with 706K permits will have to pay upon check-out and before any prescription is given, and that these workers should make arrangements with their employers to make sure that they have payments available at the time of service.
The main reason for this new policy, according to Villagomez in an earlier press briefing, was complaints from patients who had a hard time determining exactly how much the co-payment was. The co-payment is the fixed dollar amount that a patient is required to pay for each hospital, office, outpatient or emergency room visit.
Over the weekend, Villagomez said the upfront payment program is only to inform patients seeking help at CHC about what they owe after they have received medical service.
“If they have the means to pay, we encourage that they do so. If they cannot, for whatever reason, we have them meet with out financial staff to make arrangements. All of this is done after the patient is seen by the medical staff. We continue to work with our front-line people to educate and remind them of the procedure to be followed. Again, under no circumstances will anyone be turned away,” Villagomez said.
He added that the department will be making more public announcements about the upfront payment to ensure that people do not stop seeking treatment for fear of being turned away because of an inability to pay.
“This was never the intention of the upfront payment program,” said Villagomez.