Health Promotion.
SEC. 30. Health Promotion. - The DOH, as the overall steward for health care, shall strengthen national efforts in providing a comprehensive and coordinated approach to health development with emphasis on scaling up health promotion and preventive care.
The DOH shall transform its existing Health_ Promotion and Communication Service into a full-fledged Bureau, to be named as the Health Promotion Bureau, to improve health literacy and mainstream health promotion and protection.
The Health Promotion Bureau shall formulate a framework strategy for health promotion which shall serve as the basis for DOH programs in increasing health literacy with focus on reducing non-communicable diseases, implement population-wide health promotion programs and activities across social determinants of health, exercise policy coordination across government instrumentalities to ensure the attainment of the framework strategy and its programs, and promote and provide technical support to local research and development programs and projects: Provided, That within two (2) years from the effectivity of this Act, the cost of implementing health promotion programs shall be at least one percent (1%) of the DOH's total budget appropriations.
The schools under the supervision of the Department of Education (DepEd) are hereby designated as healthy settings for the purpose of this Act. The DepEd, in coordination with DOH, shall formulate programs and modules on health literacy and rights to be integrated into the existing school curricula to intensify the fight against the spread of communicable diseases and increase in prevalence of non-communicable diseases through, among others, the effective promotion of healthy lifestyle, physical activity, proper nutrition, and prevention of smoking and alcohol consumption among students. The program shall likewise acquaint the students on their entitlements, privileges and responsibilities under this Act.
The DOH and DepEd shall submit annual reports on the health promotion and literacy programs they have respectively implemented, including an assessment of the impact thereof, to the President of the Philippines, the Senate President, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Furthermore, the LGUs are also directed to enact stricter ordinances that strengthen and broaden existing health policies, the laws to the contrary notwithstanding, and implement effective programs that promote health literacy and healthy lifestyle among their constituencies to advance population health and individual wellbeing, reduce the prevalence of non-communicable diseases and their risk factors, particularly tobacco and alcohol use, lower the incidence of new infectious diseases, address mental health issues and improve health indicators. An annual report on the policies adopted and programs undertaken and an assessment of the impact thereof shall be submitted by the LGUs to the DILG.
Evidence-Informed Sectoral Policy and Planning for UHQ.
SEC. 31. Evidence-Informed Sectoral Policy and Planning for UHQ. - (a) All public and private, national and local health-related entities shall be required to submit health and health-related data to PhilHealth including, among others, administrative, public health, medical, pharmaceutical and health financing data: Provided, That PhilHealth shall furnish the DOH a copy of the health data: Provided, further, That these shall be used for the purpose of generating information to guide research and policy-making: Provided, finally, That the DOH shall strengthen its research capability by supporting health systems development and reform initiatives through policy and systems research, and shall support the growth of research consortia in line with the vision of the Philippine National Health Research System.
(b) The DOH and Department of Science and Technology (DOST) shall develop a cadre of policy systems researchers, technical experts and managers by providing training grants in globally-benchmarked institutions: Provided, That grantees shall be required to serve for at least three (3) full years, under supervision and with compensation, in DOH, PhilHealth. and other relevant government agencies: Provided, further, That those who will serve for additional two (2) years, shall be provided with additional incentives as determined by the agency concerned,
(c) All health, nutrition and demographic-related administrative and survey data generated using public funds shall be considered public records and be made accessible to the public unless otherwise prohibited by law: Provided, That any person who requests a copy of such public records may be required to pay the actual costs of reproduction and copying of the requested public records.
(d) Participatory action researches on cost-effective, high-impact interventions for health promotion and social mobilization shall form part of the national health research agenda of the Philippine National Health Research System which shall also be mandated to provide adequate funding support for the conduct of these researches.
Monitoring and Evaluation.
SEC. 32. Monitoring and Evaluation. - (a) The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) shall conduct the relevant modules of household surveys annually during the first ten (10) years of the implementation, and thereafter follow its regular schedule.
(b) The DOH shall publish annual provincial burden of disease estimates using internationally validated estimation methods and biennially using actual public and private sector data from electronic records and disease registries, to support LGUs in tracking progress of health outcomes.
Health Impact Assessment (HIA).
SEC. 33. Health Impact Assessment (HIA). - HIA shall be required for policies, programs, and projects that are crucial in attaining better health outcomes or those that may have an impact on the health sector.
Health Technology Assessment (HTA).
SEC. 34. Health Technology Assessment (HTA). - (a) The HTA process shall be institutionalized as a fair and transparent priority setting mechanism that shall be recommendatory to the DOH and PhilHealth for the development of policies and programs, regulation, and the determination of a range of entitlements such as drugs, medicines, pharmaceutical products, and other devices, procedures and services as provided for under this Act: Provided, That investments on any health technology or development of any benefit package by the DOH and PhilHealth shall be based on the positive recommendations of the HTA: Provided, further, That despite having undergone the HTA process, all health technology, intervention or benefit package shall still be subjected to periodic review: Provided, furthermore, That a health technology assessment may be conducted as new evidence emerges which may have substantial impact on the initial coverage decision by the DOH or PhilHealth: Provided, finally, That the HTA process shall adhere to the principles of ethical soundness, inclusiveness and preferential regard for the underserved, evidence-based and scientific defensibility, transparency and accountability, efficiency, enforceability and availability of remedies, and due process.
(b) The following criteria must be observed in the conduct of HTA:
(1) Responsiveness to Magnitude, Severity, and Equity. - The health interventions must address the top medical conditions that place the heaviest burden on the population, including dimensions of magnitude or the number of people affected by a health problem, and severity or health loss by an individual as a result of disease, such as death, handicap, disability or pain, and conditions of the poorest and most vulnerable population;
(2) Safety and Effectiveness. — Each intervention must have undergone Phase IV clinical trial, and systematic review and meta-analysis must be readily available. The interventions must also not pose any harm to the users and health care providers;
(3) Household Financial Impact. - The interventions must reduce out-of-pocket expenses. Interventions must have economic studies and cost-of-illness studies to satisfy this criterion;
(4) Cost-effectiveness. — The interventions must provide overall health gain to the health system and outweigh the opportunity costs of funding drug and technology; and
(5) Affordability and Viability. - The interventions must be affordable and the cost thereof must be viable to the financing agents.
(c) The HTAC, to be composed of health experts, shall be created within the DOH and supported by a Secretariat and a Technical Unit for Policy, Planning and Evaluation with evidence generation and validation capacity. The HTAC shall: (1) facilitate provision of financing and/or coverage recommendations on health technologies to be financed by DOH and Philhealth; (2) oversee and coordinate the HTA process within DOH and PhilHealth; and (3) review and assess existing DOH and PhilHealth benefit packages. Within five (5) years after the establishment and effective operation of the HTAC, it shall transition into an independent entity separate from the DOH, attached to DOST.
(d) The HTAC shall conduct the HTA in accordance with the principles, criteria and procedures of this Act and ensure that its process is transparent, conducted with reasonable promptness, and the result of its deliberations is made public. The HTAC shall consist of a core committee and subcommittees.
The core committee, which shall elect from among themselves its Chairperson, shall be composed of nine (9) voting members, namely: a public health epidemiologist; a health economist; an ethicist; a citizen's representative; a sociologist or anthropologist; a clinical trial or research methods expert; a clinical epidemiologist or evidence-based medicine expert; a medico-legal expert; and a public health expert.
The subcommittees to be constituted shall include, among others: Drugs, Vaccines, Clinical Equipment and Devices, Medical and Surgical Procedure, Preventive and Promotive Health Services, and Traditional Medicine. Each subcommittee shall have a minimum of one (1) and maximum of three (3) non-voting members for each subcommittee.
The HTAC may call upon technical resource persons from the PhilHealth, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), patient groups and clinical medicine experts as regular resource persons; and representatives from the private sector and health care providers as by-invitation resource persons.
(e) The HTAC's core committee and subcommittee members shall be appointed by the Secretary of Health for a term of three (3) years except for the medico-legal expert, ethicist, and the sociologist or anthropologist who shall serve for a term of four (4) years: Provided, That no member shall serve for more than three (3) consecutive terms: Provided, further, That the members of the HTAC shall receive an honorarium in accordance with existing policies: Provided, furthermore, That the DOH shall promulgate the nomination process for all HTAC members with a clear set of qualifications, credentials and recommendations from the sectors concerned: Provided, finally, That the Secretary of the DOST shall appoint the members of the HTAC upon its transition into an attached agency under DOST.
SEC. 35. Ethics in Public Health Policy and Practice. -The implementation of UHC shall be strengthened by commitment of all stakeholders to abide by ethical principles in public health practice:
(a) Conflict of interest declaration and management shall be routine in all policy-determining activities, and applicable to all appointed decision-makers, policymakers and their staff.
(b) All manufacturers of drugs, medical devices, biological and medical supplies registered by the FDA shall collect and track all financial relationships with health care professionals and health care providers and report these to the DOH, which shall then make this list publicly available in accordance with existing laws.
(c) A public health ethics committee shall be constituted as an advisory body to the Secretary of Health to ensure compliance with the provision of this section.
Health Information System.
SEC. 36. Health Information System. - All health service providers and insurers shall each maintain a health information system consisting of enterprise resource planning, human resource information, electronic health records, and an electronic prescription log consistent with DOH standards, which shall be electronically uploaded on a regular basis through interoperable systems: Provided, That the health information system shall be developed and funded by the DOH and PhilHealth: Provided, further, That patient privacy and confidentiality shall at all times be upheld, in accordance with the Data Privacy Act of 2012.
Source: Supreme Court E-Library, Republic of the Philippines. Philippine laws are public documents (works of the government).
