PhilHealth launches YAKAP in Central Visayas

CEBU CITY --PhilHealth Regional Office (PRO-VII) launched the Yaman ng Kalusugan Program (YAKAP) in Central Visayas on August 11 at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) marking the rollout of its enhanced primary and outpatient care package offering free consultations and health screening, select medicines, and basic laboratory or diagnostic tests, with cancer screening and additional medicines to be made available soon.

VSMMC’s Outpatient Department (OPD) is among the 240 accredited YAKAP Clinics in Central Visayas as of August 9, 2025. As a tertiary level, DOH-hospital equipped with a variety of facilities and services, which at the same time serves as a multi-specialty academic medical center and a healthcare provider network for the province, it is expected to become one of the key providers for the upcoming cancer screening services under YAKAP.

“YAKAP is an enhanced package of the Konsulta. Rural Health Units, district hospitals, DOH hospitals, and even private clinics are accredited as YAKAP Clinics. Meaning to say, you can seek free consultation, medicines, and laboratory services,” PRO-VII Regional Vice President Marjorie Cabrieto said in her welcome remarks at the launching event.

Cabrieto highlighted the program’s enhanced coverage and preventive approach and further encouraged the public to register in an accredited YAKAP clinic to fully maximize the benefits, especially with the upcoming inclusion of cancer screening services for breast, lung, colorectal, and liver cancers.

More than 100 individuals composed of patients from VSMMC’s Outpatient Department seeking medical consultations at the facility that morning and VSMMC medical staff and utility personnel took the chance to avail of the on-site services such as members registration, updating of one’s member data record (MDR) and getting a printed copy of such, ID card with actual photo capturing, and assisted registration to their preferred YAKAP clinic.

At the same event, representatives from VSMMC, DOH-CVCHD, the Cebu Provincial Government, and the City Government of Cebu signed the Manifesto of Support for a solidified a unified commitment among government agencies and health institutions to bring quality, accessible, and preventive healthcare closer to Cebuanos and to the rest of the people of Central Visayas. (Photos: PhilHealth7)