BIR Comissioner Kim Heneres has been harrasing the medical profession lately...

The theft of joy | Columnist

DR. Gatbonton is Editor-in-chief of the Manila Times Publication, HealthNews. She is a board certified internist and endocrinologist, and a past president of the Philippine Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism.

To my shock, in the middle of a patient’s visit three weeks ago, I get a frantic knock on the door, from my secretary saying, “The BIR is here and they want to speak to you.”

A team of four charges in with a very official looking Mission Order, which states they have been ordered to stake out my clinic for TWO months, starting immediately. And from that moment, they have not left me or my patients alone. Every person who comes in and out (whether patient or companion or a med-rep) is automatically asked for a receipt. Even if they are still waiting for me and just need to get something to eat or go to the toilet. They list the names and if an HMO, also get their card numbers to verify that they are really HMO patients. They demanded a receipt for two cloistered nuns from St. Claire’s. My secretary said, “Doctor has never charged the religious,” and gestured to their offering on the bench. How do you issue a receipt for 5 dozen eggs?

The first week was horrific. Even if you know you have not done anything wrong, I could not sleep for worrying. (People have told me, if they are fishing, then they will find something.) I felt horribly violated, our collective privacy invaded. One patient asked me, “Doctor, am I obliged to give them my name and contact details?” I told her, “I don’t think so; they are investigating me, not you.” And I teared up in front of her. What must they think; my doctor is doing something wrong because the BIR are outside.

Some of my long standing patients have taken up the cudgels for me, lambasting the BIR people sitting outside my door, inveighing against their intrusion into my life and the inconvenience to theirs as well. A lawyer patient has kindly volunteered his services. I hope I will not need them.

This is how it feels to be raped. They have not charged me with anything; my accountant has submitted to RDO 32 all the books they require. But why are they making me feel like a criminal? I have to grit my teeth and ride this out; I cannot make them go away. When I went out of town for a weekend course, they showed up and asked my secretary to initial their time records. The biggest irony is that my taxes go toward paying their salaries. As a Filipino citizen, I am paying for them to do their job. My only respite from them is Sunday and this long Undas weekend.

One in-patient they have been monitoring did not pay me and left a promissory note which my secretary is holding. And they will probably have to wait forever for her to show up, as will I.

The patient may leave the hospital as long as he has paid his bill, but there is no holding him back, even if he does not pay his doctor a single centavo.

Patients who do pay, automatically assume a doctor is overcharging. Socialized fee for service is the general practice. For most in-patients, physicians charge depending on the room rate. We honor the senior citizen discount. Do we ask the person who cuts and colors our hair for a break?

How many times have my clinic mates and I lamented, “Mayaman ako sa promissory notes.” If I could collect all the money owed me through the years now that would be a sizeable amount to tax. But I do not run after patients who do not pay. The Patient’s Bill of Rights notwithstanding, what about the physician’s right to be paid for services rendered? We tell ourselves: We’re not in this for the money. But the reality is, we cannot eat promissory notes for dinner, nor will it put gas in my car or pay for our children’s education. By experience, less than 1 in 10 will come back and settle the balance. The rest we chalk up to heaven, experience and good karma, trusting that what goes around, comes around.

So in spite of this service and goodwill we doctors extend to our Filipino kababayans, this is how our BIR treats us. In yesterday’s Philippine Star headline, the BIR boasted that they had filed charges against 75 tax evaders to date, and trumpeted the name of a colleague of mine who did not issue a receipt to a poseur patient and has now been charged as a criminal at the DOJ. What did they have to do that for? Why isn’t there a first offense, second offense policy? Why not spare the physician the humiliation?

Down with the BIR harassment of Filipino physicians treating Filipino patients faithfully, selflessly and well!