PhilHealth YAKAP: how to register, what is free and how to get your medicines

YAKAP stands for Yaman ng Kalusugan Program. It is PhilHealth's benefit for primary care: the everyday care you get from a regular doctor, such as check-ups, screening, tests and medicines for common and long-term illnesses.

YAKAP is the new, expanded version of PhilHealth Konsulta, which it replaced in 2025. If you were registered with a Konsulta clinic, check with your clinic or PhilHealth that your YAKAP registration is active, and do your yearly first visit.

You choose one YAKAP clinic as your regular clinic. It can be a public clinic, such as your rural health unit or city health center, or an accredited private clinic. Your YAKAP doctor looks after your basic health care and refers you for tests when you need them.

YAKAP is for outpatient care. If you are admitted to a hospital, other PhilHealth benefits pay for your stay.

Under the Universal Health Care law, every Filipino is a PhilHealth member and can use YAKAP. This includes:

• people who pay their own PhilHealth contributions, such as employees, self-employed workers and OFWs
• people whose contributions are paid by the government, such as senior citizens and indigent families
• qualified dependents, such as a spouse and children, who are covered under a member's record

Each person, including each dependent, is registered with a YAKAP clinic. Dependents can be registered at the same clinic as the member or at another clinic near them.

You need a PhilHealth Identification Number (PIN). If you don't have one yet, or your record needs updating, you can get it through the PhilHealth Member Portal or at any PhilHealth office. If you pay your own contributions, check that your record is active before you register.

At your YAKAP clinic, these are covered:

• Consultations with your YAKAP doctor.
• A yearly first visit, called the First Patient Encounter, where the clinic records your health information and checks your health risks.
• Lab and diagnostic tests when your YAKAP doctor orders them, such as complete blood count (CBC), urinalysis, fecalysis, fecal occult blood test, fasting blood sugar, oral glucose tolerance test, HbA1c, lipid profile, creatinine, chest X-ray, ECG, sputum test for TB, and Pap smear.
• 6 cancer screening tests when your YAKAP doctor refers you: mammogram, breast ultrasound, low-dose chest CT scan, liver ultrasound, alpha-fetoprotein blood test and colonoscopy.
• Medicines worth up to ₱20,000 a year for each member and each registered dependent, through the GAMOT benefit (see Getting your free medicines). This is not cash: it pays for the medicines you are prescribed.

What you actually get depends on what your YAKAP doctor finds you need.

1. Get or check your PIN. Use the PhilHealth Member Portal or visit a PhilHealth office (Local Health Insurance Office, or LHIO).
2. Choose your YAKAP clinic. You can do this in the eGovPH app, on the PhilHealth Member Portal, at a PhilHealth office, or at the YAKAP clinic itself. Pick an accredited clinic within 30 km of your home or work; PhilHealth publishes a list of accredited YAKAP clinics (opens in a new tab). Mobile clinics and online-only (telemedicine) services cannot be your YAKAP clinic.
3. Go to the clinic for your First Patient Encounter (FPE). Bring a valid ID, ideally your PhilSys National ID. The clinic checks your identity with a quick face scan, then records your health information and checks your risks. The FPE is not yet a consultation, but no YAKAP benefit can be used before it.
4. Sign the YAKAP Empanelment Slip (YES). It is also called the Mutual Care Agreement. With it, the clinic commits to giving you the covered services for the year.
5. Use your benefits. Come back for consultations, tests and prescriptions whenever you need them.

Do your first visit every year. People who were assigned to a clinic but never had their first visit in 2025 were not renewed to that clinic for 2026, and had to choose a clinic again.

Need help choosing a clinic? Find health centers near you or ask our free AI care navigator.

YAKAP includes medicines through GAMOT (Guaranteed and Accessible Medications for Outpatient Treatment).

• You need a prescription from your YAKAP doctor. Prescriptions from other doctors are not covered.
• 75 medicines are covered. 21 of them are given at YAKAP clinics. The other 54 are given at accredited GAMOT pharmacies.
• The 21 clinic medicines include common medicines for high blood pressure (such as amlodipine and losartan), diabetes (such as metformin), high cholesterol, asthma (such as salbutamol), infections, fever (paracetamol) and diarrhea (oral rehydration salts).
• The limit is ₱20,000 a year per member and per registered dependent.

GAMOT pharmacies are being added province by province, so there may not be one near you yet. Ask your YAKAP clinic which pharmacies near you are accredited.

Medicines for high blood pressure and other long-term conditions are a big part of YAKAP. If you take maintenance medicines, ask your YAKAP doctor whether they are on the list.

• Public YAKAP clinics, such as rural health units and health centers, must not charge you for covered services.
• Private YAKAP clinics may ask for a co-payment, but the total is capped at ₱900 per person for the whole year, not per visit. Once you have paid the ₱900, the rest of the year's covered services are free.
• If you move to another clinic after paying the full ₱900, the new clinic cannot charge you again that year.

If a public YAKAP clinic charges you for a covered service, or a private one charges more than the cap, ask for a receipt and report it to PhilHealth through its official website or offices.

You can move to another YAKAP clinic, for example after moving house:

• If you have not had your first visit (FPE) yet, you can ask to transfer at any time, and it takes effect right away.
• If you have already had your first visit, you can only ask to transfer from October to December. The new clinic takes effect on January 1 of the next year.

To transfer, go to a PhilHealth office (LHIO). Bring your PhilSys National ID or another valid government ID. Someone else can file for you if they bring a signed authorization letter and valid IDs for both of you. PhilHealth confirms the new clinic by email.

• Keep your contact details updated with PhilHealth so you receive confirmations.
• Register your children and other dependents, so each of them gets the yearly first visit and their own medicine limit.
• For an emergency, don't wait for your YAKAP clinic. Go to the nearest emergency room.
• If you are admitted to a basic (ward) bed, PhilHealth's rules say accredited public and private hospitals should not charge you a co-payment for many common illnesses. A private room or extra services can cost extra.
• Barangay health stations and rural health units also give babies the basic vaccines of the government's immunization program for free, whether or not they are your YAKAP clinic.

Our free government programmes page lists other services you can use.