Financially incapacitated patient

Under the Malasakit Centers Act, a financially incapacitated patient is a patient who is not classified as indigent but who demonstrates clear inability to pay or spend for necessary expenditures for one's medical treatment, such as patients with catastrophic illness or any illness, which is life or limb-threatening and requires prolonged hospitalization, extremely expensive therapies or other special but essential care that would deplete one's financial resources, as assessed and certified by the medical social worker. (Sec. 3(c), R.A. No. 11463)