PHILHEALTH IMPLEMENTS RISK INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (RIMS)

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has adopted the Enterprise-wide Risk Management (ERM) strategy to manage uncertainties and risks and ensure the viability of the National Health Insurance Program (NHIP).

According to Dr. Celestina Ma. Jude P. de la Serna, PhilHealth Interim/OIC, the strategy is aimed at protecting PhilHealth’s human resources, corporate assets and reputation, as well as realized opportunities, against uncertainties. Thus, she said, “PhilHealth has developed its Risk Information Management System (RIMS) to facilitate the conduct of the risk management process and to enable the corporation to respond promptly to new and evolving risks.” The RIMS will also provide PhilHealth management with an assurance as to the course of actions to take under uncertainties in order to achieve the Corporation’s goals and objectives.

The RIMS is a software tool developed by the Project Management Team for Risk Management in collaboration with the Information Technology Management Department (ITMD) to facilitate the management of risks in PhilHealth. It serves as a repository or registry of all identified risks and risk-related information of the Corporation or business process units. Its implementation is in compliance with the requirements of ISO 31000 which prescribes that the Corporation is to harmonize risk management processes in existing and future standards. It provides a common approach in support of standards dealing with specific risks and/or sectors, and does not replace those standards.

The objective of the RIMS is to facilitate PhilHealth’s conduct of risk assessment and management. “We want risk assessment and management to be part of regular activities of all operating units in the Corporation so that we can effectively promote a culture of risk consciousness which is essential in the health insurance industry,” de la Serna said.

This direction is in consonance with PhilHealth’s implementation of ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System. The 2015 version of the said standard now emphasizes that organizations establish a systematic approach in considering its risks. As risks are inherent in all aspects of our quality management system – in all systems, processes and functions – risk-based thinking ensures that these risks are identified, considered and controlled throughout, from planning up to the execution of our plans.

The RIMS intends to increase efficiency by reducing the process cycle time during assessment, evaluation, monitoring, reporting and analyzing risks. It will also enable operating units to identify and respond quickly to red flags and mitigate the tendencies of risks from escalating. It will help establish data analytics which is critical in identifying potential risks in the business process areas and finally provide overall support to the Risk Management Process.

This initiative is being implemented to continuously monitor the information provided to decision-makers in order to assist them as they manage key identified risks to protect the interests of the NHIP and that of PhilHealth members.

The PMT-Risk Management has been orienting Risk Management point-persons of various PhilHealth Offices to ensure that these RM designates know how to use the RIMS effectively and efficiently.  # Source - PHILHEALTH