It gives patients under PhilHealth YAKAP access to free diagnostic tests, which strengthens early disease detection in distant and cost-challenged communities.
Philippine healthtech social enterprise 1Life Inc. has entered into a partnership with Singapore Diagnostics (SGD), the country’s first College of American Pathologists (CAP)-accredited diagnostic facility.
1Life President Niño Namoco, Laboratory Partnerships and Compliance Head Allister Adam Oraña, SGD President Ritche Joseph Manuel Evidente, and COO Norely Gil formalized the partnership through the signing of a memorandum of agreement at SGD’s office in Robinsons Cyber Omega, Ortigas, Pasig City.
Together, the companies will bring access to free preventive laboratory services to more Filipinos, with 1Life patients enrolled in PhilHealth’s Yaman ng Kalusugan Program (YAKAP) receiving nine covered diagnostic tests at no cost across 23 participating SGD branches spanning Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
YAKAP is PhilHealth’s flagship preventive healthcare program, focused on early diagnosis and timely intervention to prevent disease progression and hospitalization among all PhilHealth members and their dependents, regardless of age.
The covered tests include a complete blood count (CBC), lipid profile, fasting blood sugar, oral glucose tolerance test, HbA1C, urinalysis, fecalysis, fecal occult blood test, and creatinine test — vital examinations which physicians commonly rely on to detect diabetes, kidney disease, and cardiovascular conditions in their early stages.
For 1Life, the SGD partnership is central to its preventive care strategy of providing access to free diagnostics to underserved communities, especially on tests that are prerequisite for early disease detection.
“Preventive care only works if people can actually get tested, and that has always been 1Life’s mission,” emphasized Namoco.
He added, “Partnering with trusted laboratory providers is fundamental to this, because accurate diagnoses and sound treatment decisions begin with reliable diagnostics. When a patient can receive a comprehensive laboratory workup at no cost, that goes beyond diagnosis. That is an opportunity for a healthier life.”
The deal marks a significant expansion milestone for 1Life, which has served more than one million patients across all 81 provinces and over 1,300 cities and municipalities in just two years of operations.
Available SGD branches span key urban centers across the country, such as Makati, Las Piñas, Marikina, Parañaque, Pasay, San Juan, Diliman in Quezon City, and two Pasig branches at Robinsons Cyber Omega and Strata.
Throughout Luzon, the network extends to Angeles City and San Fernando City in Pampanga, Dagupan City and Urdaneta in Pangasinan, Baguio City in Benguet, and Tarlac City.
In the Visayas, branches are in the Reclamation Area in Mabolo and Cebu City, Iloilo City and Mandurriao in Iloilo, and Bacolod in Negros Occidental, while Mindanao, patients are served in Davao City, Davao del Sur, and General Santos City in South Cotabato.
1Life operates as a social enterprise with an advocacy to strengthen community-level primary healthcare in the country and uses artificial intelligence-supported clinical workflows to compress what traditionally requires at least four patient visits into a single healthcare encounter.
The company also intends to continue growing its laboratory facility network through additional partnerships beyond SGD.
Meanwhile, Singapore Diagnostics was first founded in 2013 and has grown to more than 60 locations nationwide and serves over 600 hospitals and clinics.