Wellmed Dialysis Center kept its distance after the arrest of its owner Brian Christopher Sy, conducted by National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
The arrest came after the agency found out that WellMed is still continuing its process on defrauding Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) by submitting medical claims for dead patients.
NBI anti-graft division head Nathaniel Ramos confirmed that the said process is considered as estafa and falsification of documents,
Two whistleblowers in the “ghost dialysis” controversy appeared before the NBI to give their statements. WellMed Asst. Branch Manager Edwin Roberto and PhilHealth officer Liezel Santos admitted that they processed fraudulent claims as per instruction of Sy,
“Pinapa-kopya niya (Sy) doon sa mga chart ng pasyente; yung pirma. Tapos gagayahin namin, ipa-practice sa scratch tsaka ifo-forge,†said Santos.
(Sy asked us to practice the patients’ signature in a chart to forge it.)
“Kami ay empleyado kaya sumusunod lang kami sa utos ng may-ari. Wala na kaming social life, di na kami nalabas ng bahay mula nang mag-file kami ng kaso sa PhilHealth,†said Roberto.
(We are just employees who follow orders from our superior. We lost our social life, we can’t go outside our own houses since the day we filed the case. We also keep on receiving death threats from Sy.)
Sy claimed that Roberto and Santos pocketed the cash payments they got from the 90 dialysis sessions which PhilHealth paid for.
Atty. Rowell Ilagan, legal counsel of WellMed, refused to give a statement following the arrest of Sy. He said that the former employess resigned after being caught by WellMed. However, he assured the NBI that WellMed will cooperate with the investigation.
The NBI pointed out that Roberto and Santos will also face charges. / with reports from Bombo Christian Yosores and edited by Bombo Sol Marquez.
