Intellicare’s Preferred Deal Reaches Six MPH Hospitals

Metro Pacific Health put six of its hospitals into a Preferred Partnership Program with Intellicare and Avega on November 22, 2024. The chain now lists 31 hospitals, and the Intellicare notice still names the same six.

Other payers later received wider preferred maps inside that group. The second move was not a new front door. It was a tighter inner list.

The Preferred List Stopped at Six Hospitals

The MPH newsroom dated the signing November 22, 2024, two weeks after City of General Trias Doctors Medical Center became the group’s 27th hospital. The note framed a Preferred Partnership Program at six hospitals as a way to give Intellicare members a smoother path through those sites.

Jessica Abaya, then MPH chief commercial officer, and Rebecca Joy Espera, head of strategic partnerships, joined the ceremony. Intellicare sent Dr. Gerardo J. Jiao, medical director, and Maria Leonora M. Cotture, deputy chief finance officer. Avega sent Dr. Michael John Encarnacion, medical director, Jerico del Cruz, senior vice president, and Exelda L. Millevo, vice president of operations.

THE SIX HOSPITALS ON THE NOTICE

• Asian Hospital: Asian Hospital and Medical Center in Muntinlupa, represented by Dr. Lawrence Marquez.
• Calamba: Calamba Medical Center in Laguna, represented by president and CEO Atty. Nuca Almira.
• Lourdes: Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Sta. Mesa, Manila, represented by Rea Guevarra, head of marketing and sales.
• Riverside: Riverside Medical Center Inc. in Bacolod, represented by president and CEO Gene Golingan.
• De Los Santos: De Los Santos Medical Center in Quezon City, represented by Carmen Soriano, head of marketing and sales.
• Commonwealth: Commonwealth Hospital and Medical Center in Quezon City, represented by Denn Sajo, marketing manager.

Makati Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Davao Doctors Hospital, and Manila Doctors Hospital did not sign that paper. Those names sit at the core of MPH’s own history, and they were already in the group in 2024.

MPH’s site, updated as of September 11, 2026, lists 31 hospitals, 4,800 beds, 12,500 doctors, 24,000 staff, and 5.2 million patients a year, plus 36 outpatient centers. After the Batangas investments completed on June 30, 2026, the split was 11 hospitals in the National Capital Region, 12 in Luzon, 2 in the Visayas, and 6 in Mindanao. Four hospitals joined after the Intellicare signing. None of those four appear on the Intellicare preferred notice.

What a Preferred Partnership Changes at Admission

Intellicare members were not locked out of every other MPH hospital. Private hospitals in the country routinely carry many HMO names on the same wall, and a preferred tag is a narrower commercial layer on top of ordinary accreditation.

The MPH Medicard note, posted August 5, 2025, is the group’s clearest public definition of that layer. Preferred hospitals are named so the payer and the site share service standards and routines. The Intellicare paper used a slightly different label, Preferred Partnership Program, and never published rates, co-pays, room rules, or a wait-time guarantee.

PREFERRED STATUS IN PLAIN TERMS

• Inner list: Named hospitals get priority handling from the payer, not a monopoly on members.
• Same card: A member can still need a Letter of Authorization before a planned admission, even at a preferred site.
• Silent terms: The public file for Intellicare still does not show the fee schedule behind the six names.

That gap is why the six-hospital map matters more than the headline about access. Steering only works if the payer and the hospital agree on price, paperwork, and which rooms the card will cover. Those terms stayed in the room with the signatories.

Intellicare’s P23.82 Billion Slice of HMO Fees

The deal sits on a large corporate HMO book. Intellicare’s October 2025 note said the brand covers over 1.2 million members, more than 69,000 affiliated doctors, and about 3,000 company accounts. President Jeremy Matti tied that scale to employer plans for workers and their families.

The Insurance Commission’s year-end 2025 HMO membership fees put Asalus Corporation, the Intellicare legal name, second in the country at ₱23.82 billion, or 24% of the ₱98.46 billion full-risk fee pool. Maxicare led at ₱28.33 billion. Medicard was third at ₱14.91 billion.

2025 FULL-RISK HMO FEES AND INCOME

Asalus posted the highest net income in that table, ₱1.15 billion, ahead of Maxicare’s larger fee book. Industry revenue reached ₱101.56 billion, and HMOs paid ₱74.64 billion in benefits and claims. Avega’s full-risk fees are small because most of its work is third-party administration, so its ₱296.7 million profit sits on a different mix of income than Intellicare’s membership fees.

A preferred list of six MPH sites is, for a book that size, a funnel into selected wards and operating rooms rather than a tour of the whole chain.

A 14-Hospital Map for Etiqa, 10 for Medicard

MPH did not stop at Intellicare. It ran the same preferred playbook with other payers, and those later lists grew in public. Medicard, an AIA company, signed a first batch of five MPH hospitals in 2024, then a second batch on July 11, 2025 at MPH’s Pasig head office. Batch two added Lucena United Doctors Hospital, Diliman Doctors Hospital, Medical Center Imus, Ramiro Community Hospital, and Dr. Jesus Delgado Memorial Hospital, taking Medicard’s preferred count to 10.

Etiqa Philippines went further. A ceremonial signing on November 11, 2025, posted by MPH on November 28, 2025, named a preferred panel of 14 MPH hospitals. Dr. Harish Pillai, MPH group chief executive, joined the opening. Jessica Abaya appeared there as chief marketing officer, a title change from the Intellicare ceremony.

PREFERRED MPH HOSPITALS BY PAYER

THE PREFERRED-PANEL CALENDAR

1. November 7, 2024: MPH completes its 27th hospital, City of General Trias Doctors Medical Center.
2. November 22, 2024: Intellicare and Avega sign the six-hospital Preferred Partnership Program.
3. 2024: Medicard’s first five MPH hospitals enter Preferred Status, including Asian Hospital, Commonwealth, Lourdes, Riverside, and Marikina Valley Medical Center.
4. July 11, 2025: Medicard adds five more MPH hospitals in Pasig.
5. November 11, 2025: Etiqa’s preferred panel is named at 14 MPH hospitals.
6. June 30, 2026: Two Batangas hospitals lift the MPH network to 31.

Asian Hospital, Lourdes, and Commonwealth sit on more than one of those lists. Calamba and Riverside are on the Intellicare paper and missing from the Etiqa 14. Marikina Valley is on Medicard’s first batch and not on the Intellicare six. The maps overlap, and they are not the same product.

The Preferred Status Program is a strategic partnership in which participating MPH hospitals are designated as Medicard’s preferred providers, enabling shared service standards and operational alignment to enhance patient experience and healthcare delivery.

Metro Pacific Health, August 5, 2025 newsroom note

No later Intellicare notice in that newsroom extends the original six names. The commercial template moved. The Intellicare map did not, at least on the public board.

Makati Med Stays Off the Preferred Six

MPH began with Makati Medical Center in 2007, then Davao Doctors Hospital and Cardinal Santos Medical Center in 2008. Those three remain the names the group uses to describe itself, and none of them joined the Intellicare preferred six. Manila Doctors Hospital, added in 2015, is also off that list.

Asian Hospital, bought in 2011 after the Bumrungrad group withdrew, is the flagship that did sign. Riverside, the Bacolod hospital MPH entered in 2010, is the Visayas name on the Intellicare paper. The rest of the six are mid-network and city hospitals: Lourdes in Sta. Mesa, De Los Santos and Commonwealth in Quezon City, Calamba in Laguna.

MPH NETWORK SNAPSHOT

• Hospitals: 31, up from 27 at the Intellicare signing.
• Beds and staff: 4,800 beds, 12,500 doctors, 24,000 nurses and other staff.
• Volume: 5.2 million patients a year across the group.
• Intellicare preferred share: 6 named hospitals, with no public add-on after November 22, 2024.

A preferred deal is most useful to a hospital that wants HMO volume in its rooms. It is less urgent for a flagship that already fills beds at higher cash and premium-plan rates. MPH never said that split out loud. The lists say it for the group. Independent hospitals outside MPH do not appear on any of these preferred pages, and the releases do not show what volume they lose when a payer points members at named MPH sites.

Fullerton Bought the Engine in 2018

Intellicare is the trade name of Asalus Corporation, registered in 1995. Avega is a sister company with its own Insurance Commission certificate. The Philippine Competition Commission’s 2018 file records Fullerton Healthcare Corporation Limited taking 60 percent of Asalus, Avega, and Aventus, the clinic arm. The Insurance Commission approved the Asalus and Avega share sales on April 12, 2018.

Fullerton marked Avega’s 15th year on April 18, 2026 and described it as a third-party administrator inside the group. Intellicare Group later signed a February 2026 memorandum with Mitsubishi Corporation after Mitsubishi invested in Fullerton. That is the ownership stack behind the people who sat across from MPH in November 2024.

Matti, on the October 2025 Intellicare note, said the firm’s income let it keep delivering care to employees and their families as it headed toward 30 years. The MPH-Intellicare page used softer stock language about a seamless, efficient, and affordable experience. Neither document attached a price, a room class, or a second batch of hospitals.

For a member, the practical test is still the card, the LOA, and the hospital on the day of admission. For MPH, the test is whether preferred status fills Calamba, Commonwealth, Lourdes, and Riverside without putting Makati Med on the same discounted rail. For Intellicare, the test is whether six named MPH sites are enough when Medicard holds 10 and Etiqa holds 14 in the same chain.

The Intellicare notice posted on November 22, 2024 still names the same six hospitals. MPH’s later preferred-status pages for other payers name more, and the group’s own hospital count is 31.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who owns Intellicare and Avega?

Fullerton Healthcare Corporation Limited bought 60 percent of Asalus Corporation (Intellicare), Avega Managed Care, Inc., and Aventus Medical Care, Inc. in 2018, a deal the Philippine Competition Commission logged as Commission Decision No. 09-M-006/2018. The Insurance Commission approved the Asalus and Avega share purchases on April 12, 2018. Mitsubishi Corporation later invested in Fullerton, and Intellicare Group signed a February 2026 memorandum with Mitsubishi on data-driven corporate care.

What does Avega do if Intellicare is the HMO brand?

Avega holds a separate Health Maintenance Organization certificate of authority and is described by Fullerton as a third-party administrator. It marked 15 years on April 18, 2026. In the Insurance Commission’s 2025 tables its full-risk membership fees were ₱241 million, far below Intellicare, while net income was ₱296.7 million, which fits a TPA book that is not built on the same membership-fee base.

When did Metro Pacific Health start buying hospitals?

MPH’s first investment was Makati Medical Center in 2007. Davao Doctors Hospital and Cardinal Santos Medical Center followed in 2008, Riverside Medical Center and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in 2010, and Asian Hospital and Medical Center in 2011 after Bumrungrad withdrew. The group reached 31 hospitals with two Batangas investments completed on June 30, 2026.

How many HMOs does the Insurance Commission license?

The commission’s year-end 2025 performance tables cover 28 licensed HMOs, with one firm filing no report. Circular Letter 2025-11 set net-worth tiers for financial capacity, with Tier A above ₱500 million and no cap on gross membership-fee risk for that tier. Asalus, Maxicare, and Medicard all sit in that top fee band on the 2025 list.