PhilHealth is rocked by another data leak.

DCT Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dy claims that code mistakes, not cybercriminals, were the cause of the website malfunctions on PhilHealth. Now that the problem has been rectified, regular operations can resume.

“It seems that there were some errors made in building the website. They fixed it already. It was a bug,” he told The STAR.

Cybercriminals attempted to extract $300,000 from PhilHealth in September of last year through a ransomware assault using the Medusa virus on the PhilHealth website.

Malware that encrypts files and requests money in exchange for the decryption key is known as "Medusa ransomware."

A report on the cyberattack, according to DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy, revealed that the perpetrators using the Medusa ransomware had taken almost 600 terabytes of data from the PhilHealth website.

Additionally, action has been taken by the National Privacy Commission (NPC) to investigate the occurrence.

NPC public relations officer Kate Lo told The STAR, "We already informed the quick response team and they will conduct an initial investigation."

PhilHealth has recommended its members to contact the organization for support if they are experiencing difficulty logging into the member site. Rey Baleña, the acting vice president of PhilHealth's corporate affairs group, stated that the organization is prepared to assist these members and investigate the matter.

PhilHealth and the DICT are always working together, particularly on the former's digital transformation initiative. PhilHealth promised the public at a briefing last Friday that there would be no repeat of the hacking event that compromised their systems the previous year.

PhilHealth is being urged to pay the P6 billion in outstanding claims by the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. (PHAPI). More than P10 billion in unpaid claims total—including what PhilHealth owes government hospitals.

According to De Grano, this represents 10% of all hospital claims, which number more than P100 billion.

Of the over P100 billion, PhilHealth has already given P46.5 billion to private and public hospitals. Private hospitals have received P26.2 billion in payments, while government hospitals have received P20.3 billion. Rep. Wilbert Lee of the AGRI party-list thinks that if the state insurer's premium hike goes through, PhilHealth's benefits ought to rise. To lessen the burden on patients and their families, he suggested that dialysis sessions, chemotherapy, heart bypass surgery, and other diagnostic tests and preventive measures should all be covered without any restrictions.