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Affordable Health Card – PhilCare ER Vantage Emergency Hospitalization Coverage

What is the best affordable health card to get for stay at home moms and dads, or freelancers like myself?

I’ve been checking out the different HMO and it’s no joy that I learn that full health insurance coverage in the Philippines starts at around P18,000 and up, depending on the type of health care package you want, and the insurance company you’ll get it from.

At this point in time, I am comparing these two HMO’s – Medicard and Fortune Care. But since I don’t have the funds yet to apply for a full health insurance from either of this company, I looked for other options. Specially, a health card that is a bit more affordable.

Affordable Health Card Insurance and HMO!

PhilCare ER Vantage Health Cards

It was perfect timing when I saw a sponsored ad in Facebook by the health insurance firm PhilCare. I got interested in their ER Vantage Cards, it looked promising. So I researched, dig around, ask some other freelancer friends about their own HMO. I like what I’m hearing so far about Philcare and from the info I got from reading feedback and online reviews, so I ended up buying the PhilCare ER Vantage 80 with P80,000 emergency leading to hospital admission coverage. I paid Php 1,300 for this card plus P150 shipping fee.

*I am still planning to sign up with either Medicard or Fortune Care, hopefully in the near future when my funds permits.

How I got my PhilCare ER Vantage Card? I just went to the official company website at www.philcare.com.ph, and selected the ER Vantage 80, paid for it using my Paypal account. Within a week of ordering and paying for the health card, it arrived via LBC.

UPDATE: October 16, 2016:  I just tried to check the ER Vantage plans of PhilCare today after Catznatz ,an iSensey reader, shared info that the ER Vantage coverage has changed. So I checked the PhilCare website but when I clicked on the “ER Vantage” link, it results to “page not found”. I also checked the SHOP NOW tab, the ER Vantage 40,60,80 cards are no longer in the list of available products.

I checked the company’s official facebook page, and it says there ‘Out of Stock’ ang ER Vantage cards. See this convo on their page:

PhilCare ER Vantage Not Available

Sana ibalik nila ang ER Vantage cards kasi mas abot kaya eto para sa nakakarami.

This company has another option, their PhilCare Health Vantage which can be used as often as needed within 1 year of registration, available to 6 months to 60 years old. This card prices are P6,500 for ward, P11,000 for semi-private room, and P13,000 for private room. Check this updated matrix from PhilCare:

Philcare Health Vantage

iSensey Recommendation: If you are thinking of getting the P13,000 PhilCare Health Vantage card – you may want to explore other options first, other HMOs offers hospitalization + check-ups. You will only add a little more to the P13,000 and be covered for both out-patient check-up/hospitalization/out-patient laboratories.

Next step was to register it via sms. It was easy enough to do this since there is a clear instruction at the back of the card, or you can also call PhilCare’s company hotline to have a CSR assist you in registering your card. You will get a sms confirmation of your registration after a couple of minutes of texting your details in the proper format. The card will then be activated 1 week after successful registration. Coverage is one-year from date of activation.

BUT note that the ER vantage cards 40, 60, and 80 are ONE TIME USE only. Meaning if you faced an emergency and used the card, you can’t use it again even if you only incur P5,000 on hospital bills, and your card limit is up to Php 40,000. You need to buy a card again if you want to continue being covered by PhilCare.

Click to read about the ER Vantage options, FAQs, and other pertinent details.

If you want to buy now, go to this link.

From the page linked above it reads “The ER Vantage 80 prepaid health card provides coverage* for emergency care leading to admission for treatment of medical emergency cases due to accident or illness at around 400+ PhilCare accredited hospitals nationwide.”
P80,000 coverage for emergency room care and hospitalization inclusive of doctors’ fees, laboratory and diagnostic procedures, room and board, and medicines (except vaccines) as medically necessary during confinement except for cases declared as non-coverable** The 80 card allows the insured for a private room.

PhilCare Covered and Not-Covered Illnesses and Diseases

I’ve checked the coverable cases for the ER Vantage card and it includes bacterial and viral infections as well as emergency cases. Also included are Acute Appendicitis, Acute Gastritis, Dengue, Typhoid Fever, UTI or Urinary Track Infection, Pneumonia among others. See here for the complete list of PhilCare ER Vantage coverable cases.

Just to give you an idea of the illnesses and diseases NOT COVERED by the card, here are some – Asthma, Cardiovascular diseases like Hypertension, Myocardial Infraction, etc, Epilepsy, Gastric or duodenal ulcer, Tuberculosis, Diabetes mellitus, Pre-existing and congenital conditions, and others. Link to Full List of Non-Coverable Cases here. You can also read about the other General exclusions to the coverage on that link.

Payment options for PhilCare for online purchasing includes:

  • Paypal
  • Bancnet Debit Cards
  • Over the counter payment centers like LBC, SM, Robinsons
  • Online Banking via DragonPay, BDO Internet Banking, Unionbank, Metrobank, BPI, etc.

This health insurance company has other products too which you can check on their website; PhilCare also offer full HMO coverage with consultations, laboratories, admissions, annual physical check-up. They have one targeted specially for Seniors, their Unli-Consult.

Tip: You need to show your card to the PhilCare assigned staff in the hospital when you use it. So after registering your card, take note of the Certificate Number assigned to you (you’ll get this from the text confirmation sent after registering). I suggest you get a small piece of paper, write your full name and your certificate no, and then taped this into the front of your ER Vantage card. This way you or your guardian will not have a hard time finding your health insurance details and can process your hmo claim right away. This is what I did with my card, look below. 😀

PhilCare ER Vantage Health Insurance Card Emergency Hospitalization

Health insurance coverage is something that Filipinos thought of last, if at all. But a health card is very important considering that if an illness strikes you and you need hospital admission – the expenses can file up fast in a blink of an eye, and what if you don’t have cash? So I am happy to have this ER Vantage Card from PhilCare, though the coverage is limited, but still I have coverage.

I’ve had this card since November 2015, I haven’t used it so I can’t give feedback on how easy or hard it is to coordinate with the PhilCare staff to file claims. I hope I won’t be using this card because if I do use it, it only means I had been admitted in a hospital and I pray not. But just in case a health emergency occur and I’ll use the card, I will write a new post on the experience of actually using the PhilCare ER Vantage 80 for emergency care and hospital admission – a feedback and review post.

If you are on OFW, it might be a good idea to buy this PhilCare card or something similar for your love ones left in the country. It might come in handy.

How easy /difficult is it to use this card?

If you have bought this health card, and have used it. Please share to us your experience so all of us readers will have an idea of this health insurance company’s performance in terms of ease of use in claim filing and how fast PhilCare process hospitalization claims.

Philcare contact numbers and online support at (63)2-8027333 local 19224.

Disclaimer: I have no connection with this company in whatever capacity. I just bought one of their cards.

If this post has been useful to you, consider clicking LIKE and/or SHARE. Thanks!

Reader Interactions

Comments

    • Hi Jan, Thank goodness there was no reason to use the card (hopefully this stays this way for the family). But in case it comes needed, I hope hospitalization claim from PhilCare ER Vantage will be fast.

    • Hi everyone, just wanna share my experience sa ER Vantage 80 of PhilCare which I just recently bought August 2016 for 1,300 pesos:

      Na admit ang 5 yrs old daughter ko Oct 5, 2016 @ 9:30 pm.
      Ward (1,240 per day) palang available kasi punuan, pinatos ko na kasi para magamot na agad ang baby ko nagpareserve nlng ako private room in case may magdischarge na…the ff day nakalipat na kami sa private room (1,585 per day) kasi un nmn talaga benefit sa er vantage 80. Pneumonia ang sakit ni baby and as per Philhealth dapat naka confine ng 96 hrs para macovered nila…

      So, Oct 9, 2016 @ 9:30 pm kami nakalabas…
      My Total Bill: 35,111.00

      PhilHealth coverage : 15,000
      PhilCare coverage: 19,764.50
      My Excess: 346.50

      Yes, 346.50 lang binayaran ko… i figured out kung san galing ang excess sa Room and Board pala…
      Upon comoutation, dapat pala di lalamaps sa 1,400 pesos ang private room na kukunin mo… ung sakin kasi 1,585 🙂

      Galing ng card, sulit na sulit pero mas ok sana na ndi na nagamit…kukuha sana ulit ako for my daughter but unfortunately, since September 15, 2016 ginawa na nilang 18-64 yrs old from 6 months to 64 yrs old.

      Health Vantage nlng kukunin ko… same benefits pero multiple use sya, pwede sa 6 months

      Thank God at nagpapalakas nalng ang baby ko.

      • Thank you Catnatz for sharing your experience! And that’s awesome to hear your baby is now okay!

        Will also update the post soon with the new coverage info you shared, salamat for sharing!

      • catznatz nagpacheckup ka ba muna sa pedia tapos inadvice ka magpa admit, or mismong emergency dr ang ngsabi sau na iadmit baby mo? may er vantage plus kc akong kinuha sa kapatid ko..hindi ko maintindihan pag gamit. thanks

  2. Hi there, isensey. Thank you for sharing your ER Vantage card online purchase experience. I’m happy to let you know that we have just launched its new version ER Vantage Plus (now with 50K accidental death and dismemberment coverage). It is also now an online voucher which means you get to have your card registration details faster. It is tiered in pricing. This means that for the adult version, it ranges from P1050 – P1750, while for the kids version, it ranges from P2950 – P4950.

    Please do visit our site and I sure hope to hear from you again.

  3. pwd bang i swap ang name, like at first sa name ko naka register, dn suddently nagkasakit ang 1 sa family member ko. pwd ko bang ilipat sa kanya ung card?

  4. My family had a bad experience with philcare cards. Instead of helping out the patients, they will search for ways not to cover your illness. My daughter had pneumonia And sinusitis. They dont want to cover the hospital bills because of the sinusitis diagnosis even if pneumonia is part of their covered illnesses. Some more we gave them all the results they needed and asked. They take so long to decide if they will cover the illness or not. We End up paying the entire hospital bill. Good luck to all others who took thier prepaid cards. For my family and friends never again.

    • Hi Radd, thank you for sharing your experience on using PhilCare health cards.

      All experiences about this HMO is welcome here, good and bad. This way readers are expos to pros and cons and can decide by themselves if they will buy or not.

  5. I have to helt card medicare fortune 40.000 each of them but lose my card can redeem each

  6. Just want to share our experience with ER Vantage Plus 40.
    Nakakdissapoint sobra!

    Yung cost ng card is P1,050 then ang nakuha lang namin sa Philcare is P1,800 out of P9,981 na bill.

    So here’s what happened, naaksidente yung husband ko, may lacerations yung daliri nya sa paa. Dahil “accident” sya also malinaw naman na nakalagay sa inclusions ng prepaid nila:

    Outpatient Emergency Care and Hospitalization Care Benefits:

    ER Vantage Plus 40 for Adults * gives you a one-time coverage up to Php 40,000 for viral, bacterial illnesses and treatment of injuries resulting from accidents (except stroke) ** In more than 500 accredited hospitals nationwide excluding six (6) major hospitals in Metro Manila (Makati Medical Center, St. Luke’s Medical Center (QC and Global), Asian Hospital and Medical Center, The Medical City, and Cardinal Santos Medical Center). The Coverage is inclusive of the following benefits:
    Room and board (Ward Room)
    Doctors’ fees
    Laboratory and diagnostics procedures
    Special modalities of treatment as medically necessary during ER and confinement, subject to P5,000 inner limits
    Medicines (except vaccines) as medically necessary during ER and confinement except for cases declared as non-coverable **, subject to standard inner limits
    Diagnostic and therapeutic procedures as medically necessary during ER and confinement

    Malinaw naman nakalagay, covered yung doctor’s fee, medicines during ER at pati yung Laboratory and diagnostics procedures…

    Pagdating na sa bayaran, pagpresent ko ng evoucher sa nurse, lahat nalang di covered ng Philcare, naumay talaga ako, buti nalang may perang pangbayad. Sana man lang kahit HALF ng bill kinover, hindi eh, P1,800 lang out of the P9,981 na bill! Grabe talaga.

    Tapos ang nakakayamot, pinagbayad muna ako ng Philcare sa hospital, PINA-REIMBURSE ko pa sa kanila. YES! Walag on the spot na binawas ang Philcare, yung P1,800 galing sa reimbursement.

    To think na 3 years na kaming kumukuha ng 2 ER Vantage Plus 40 (for us) at 2 ER Shield (for the kids) yearly yan… at sa loob ng 3 years, ONCE palang namin nagamit, yun ngang naaksidente yung husband ko.

    Grabeng hassle lang inabot namin dito sa Philcare, maganda lang “kuno” yung coverage nila, pero pag gagamitin mo na, ito nalang sasabihin nila sayo, ito yung mismong sinabi nila sa email.

    “Please be reminded that the reimbursement claims are limited to emergency confinements/consultations only except when agreement has a Point-Of-Service option”

    Oh diba, walang sense?

    Sayang lang pera nyo dito mga mommies, ang sabi samin sa hospital, mas ok pa daw ang Maxicare, maliit man ang limit dahil P15,000 lang, pero kahit anong ER case, covered.

    #PhilcareNeverAgain

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