Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act
Section 1. Regulation of Medical Clinics. The Department of Health (DOH) shall regulate the activities and operations of all clinics which conduct medical, physical, optical, dental, psychological and other similar examinations, hereinafter referred to as health examinations, on Filipino migrant workers as requirement for their overseas employment. Pre-Employment Medical Examinations (PEME) for overseas work applicants shall be performed only in DOH-accredited medical clinics and health facilities utilizing the standards set forth by DOH. Pursuant to this, the DOH shall ensure that:
(a) The fees for the health examinations are regulated, regularly monitored and duly published to ensure that the said fees are reasonable and not exorbitant. The DOH shall set a minimum and maximum range of fees for the different examinations to be conducted, based on a thorough and periodic review of the cost of health examinations and after consultation with concerned stakeholders. The applicant-worker shall pay directly to the DOH-accredited medical clinics or health facilities where the PEME is to be conducted.
(b) The Filipino migrant workers shall only be required to undergo health examinations when there is reasonable certainly by the hiring recruitment/manning agency pursuant to POEA Rules and Regulations that he/she will be hired and deployed to the jobsite and only those health examinations which are absolutely necessary for the type of job applied for those specifically required by the foreign employer shall be conducted;
(c) No groups of medical clinics shall have a monopoly of exclusively conducting health examinations on migrant workers for certain receiving countries;
(d) Every Filipino migrant worker shall have the freedom to choose any of the DOH-accredited or DOH-operated clinics that will conduct his/her health examinations and that his/her rights as a patient are respected. The decking practice, which requires overseas Filipino workers to go first to an office for registration and then farmed out to a medical clinic located elsewhere, shall not be allowed;
(e) Within a period of three (3) years from the effectivity of the Act, all DOH regional and/or provincial hospitals under local government units shall establish and operate clinics that can serve the health examination requirements of Filipino migrant workers to provide them easy access to such clinics all over the country and lessen their transportation and lodging expenses; and
(f) All DOH-accredited medical clinics, including the DOH-operated clinics, conducting health examinations for Filipino migrant workers shall observe the same standard operating procedures and shall comply with internationally-accepted standards in their operations to conform with the requirements of receiving countries or of foreign employers/principals.