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Pursuant to Section 29 of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act, which mandates the identification of Unserved and Underserved areas by the Department of Health (DOH), the Bureau of Local Health Systems Development (BLHSD) developed the Administrative Order (AO) 2020-0023 to provide the criteria to identify the said areas. This was further supported by the release of the profiling and information systems toolkit disseminated through Department Memorandum 2021-0295. The said toolkit was used for the profiling of the unserved and underserved areas and updating of its annual list which served as the basis for the prioritization of assistance from the national and local governments and other health partners as mandated by Chapter V, Section 2 of the UHC Act.
Three years after its implementation, the toolkit was subjected to a validation study by BLHSD which showed variance of accuracy due to issues and difficulties in the collection of data and the use or interpretation of the data itself. The study also highlighted the need to review and revise AO 2020-0023 to address the gaps and challenges in the identification and prioritization of the Unserved and Underserved Areas. To address this, the BLHSD is endeavoring to conduct a research study on the prioritization of the Unserved and Underserved Areas (UUA) and the criteria for identifying such areas.
To provide undisrupted healthcare services to these areas, the BLHSD developed the UUA 2025 Toolkit, which will serve as the interim tool for the profiling, validation, and encoding of Unserved and Underserved Areas for the CY 2025 while waiting for the revised policy. The toolkit was refined to be more concise, accurate, and accessible at all times, regardless of internet connectivity, to collect data for identifying the 2025 list of Unserved and Underserved Areas.
The UUA Profiling occurs in 4 phases: (1) Registration, (2) Profiling, (3) Encoding, and (4) Validation.
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