MANILA – The Senate approved on third and final reading a bill strengthening protections for patients and their families against detention in hospitals and medical facilities over unpaid medical expenses.

Senate Bill No. 1511, principally authored and sponsored by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, seeks to amend Republic Act No. 9439, which prohibits the detention of patients in hospitals and medical clinics due to nonpayment of hospital bills.

The measure expands the law’s coverage to patients in “any other similar facility” and expressly includes unpaid professional fees.

“The answer to unpaid medical debt cannot be to hold a patient, a newborn child, a family member, or the remains of a loved one against their will,” Hontiveros said. “Debts can be paid, but the dignity and freedom of Filipinos should not be used as collateral.”

Under the bill, hospitals and similar facilities would also be prohibited from detaining a patient’s relatives, representatives or carers, as well as newborn children of maternity patients, in exchange for allowing the patient to leave.

Patients who have fully or partially recovered but are financially unable to settle hospitalization expenses, including professional fees and medicines, would be allowed to leave the facility.

The measure would also allow patients to secure the unpaid obligation through a promissory note and require the immediate release of their medical certificate, discharge summary, prescriptions and other documents necessary for their discharge.

“Hospital sustainability and patient rights are not opposing choices,” Hontiveros said. “That is the balance this measure seeks to strike: protecting patients from detention while preserving lawful mechanisms for hospitals to recover legitimate obligations.”

Unpaid obligations may also be secured through a mortgage over real or personal property, a co-maker’s guarantee, assignment of SSS or GSIS loan proceeds or benefits, or guarantee letters from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Department of Social Welfare and Development or Department of Health.

Indigent senior citizens endorsed by a hospital’s medical social services office to the DSWD would not be required to execute a promissory note.

For deceased patients, the bill provides for the immediate release of remains to surviving relatives and the prompt issuance of death certificates and other documents needed for burial, benefit claims or legal proceedings, without requiring payment.

Penalties

Violating the proposed law could result in imprisonment of six months and one day to two years and four months, a fine of P100,000 to P300,000, or both.

If the violation was committed pursuant to an established hospital or clinic policy or management instruction, the responsible director or officer could face four to six years in prison, a fine of P500,000 to P1 million, or both.

Three repeated violations committed under such a policy or instruction could result in the revocation of the facility’s license to operate by the Department of Health.