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According to the Insurance Commission (IC), MUTUAL benefit associations (MBAs) have been able to operate with a minimal workforce after their employees were deemed exempt from the improved Community Quarantine (ECQ) rules.
IC issued Circular Letter (CL) No. 2020-39 on April 9 to classify MBAs as health insurance providers, effectively exempting them from the ECQ.
“The CI recognizes the need to allow MBAs to maintain the operational capacity to process claims for the death of their members considering volumes, as well as the need to care for the marginalized,” the circular said.
The Inter-Agency Working Group on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) exempts health maintenance
organizations (HMOs) and insurance companies since closing as they are considered health service border lines.
The CI also issued CL. No. 2020-40, which mandates health insurance providers, including HMOs, life and non-life insurance companies that offer health insurance products, as well as MBAs, to operate with minimal staff for the claims processing.
Personnel have been limited to 10% of the total workforce, the IC said, with only “essential personnel” needed in claims processing.
Companies seeking exemptions for their workers must submit to the IC a list of essential personnel, which the regulator will approve by issuing a certification per company, with workers subject to social distancing rules and required to wear face masks while in the office.
“Staff age 54 or older, pregnant women, people with underlying medical conditions,
with COVID-19 symptoms or have been exposed to people under investigation or monitoring “are not eligible for the exemption, according to the circular.
Businesses should also organize transportation of workers from home to the office and vice versa, as well as meals and accommodation as needed. – Beatrice M. Laforga
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