We have known stories of people spending hundreds of thousands and even millions for the hospitalization because of Covid-19. The bills vary on cases and where is the patient admitted.
Yesterday, I was informed that I should process for Chelle's discharge from the hospital and that she will be transferred to an isolation facility. I am not supposedly to go out but no one will take care of the processing so I went there, I just make sure that I have the face shield, face mask and they even gave me gloves. Good thing also, I have a friend in the billing section who prepared the necessary documents so that I would not spend a longer time in the hospital. I process her clearance also.
How much is our bill?
Chelle is confined in the public hospital for 3 days. Her final diagnosis/es as stated in the bill is - "Upper Respiratory Tract Infection, Covid Confirmed Mild". The procedure done is treatment for mild pneumonia. The total bill is Php 18, 665.79 / $ 370.79. Since her Father is an indigent member of Philhealth, we paid Php 0.00. Philhealth offers Php 43, 997.00 as benefits for Covid case , 1st case rate. Thus, a total of Php 25, 331.21 is still an unused portion of the package.
Aside from the hospital bills, there are also other expenses. Expenses for food, although the patients are provided with food, we still give her food, hygiene supplies and other needs. There are also vitamins not present in the hospital pharmacy so we buy outside.
On our side, who are in the house as Person Under Monitoring(PUM), the expenses for food deliveries and electricity are added as well. Since we cannot go outside, we have to ask somebody to buy for our needs at home. We sometimes order food for our meals. Good thing there are food riders here in our place like Food Panda, Toktok delivery and other local delivery services like "Ipamalihog kay Lolo". Since I work from home, there will be added expenses for electricity on our side.
Closing thoughts
The cost of medical bills and other expenses vary from case to case and also to where the patient is confined. It is an expensive case. You will not only need money for the hospital bill but also for others like food, hygiene and what if, one is in no work no pay scheme. It would really be hard. That's why, as much as possible we should be very careful not to be infected with this virus. Not to disregard the protocols.
And I am thankful to God that despite this situation, He provided our needs and He has given us people who are willing to help. We will go through this situation, one day at a time.
Words of gratitude
I would like to say thank you to all your well wishes and kind words for our family. It really means so much to me, to us. Only my private network (my family and friends) know about this situation. We will have our Swab Test tomorrow, we will go to the center where it will be done, because if we will wait in our home, it would take a long time. I am hoping that all of us will have a negative result. I would document our swab experience tomorrow.
As of today, Chelle is not yet transferred to the isolation facility because the hospital is still coordinating with them about the vacant room. I am hoping that she will be transferred today because her place there is not comfortable, she's still in the tent and it is so hot in the afternoon. I will make a follow-up today.
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Thank God she is better. We were so close to getting infected but thankfully we weren't. It's really the psychological part of it all that takes over us. I hope soon everything will be fine so Chelle can be discharged.