Dr. Leizel Lagrada is an independent consultant working with global organizations, development partners and Philippine government agencies on health financing reforms, governance in health, and quality assurance. She had been a part of the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN) for seven years, first as country-representative and member of its steering group and recently in a technical support role for its quality assurance and governance structure. She worked as head executive staff (2010-2015) and concurrently as group vice president at the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) with a prior appointment as senior manager for the accreditation department and standards and monitoring department. She led the development of the implementing guidelines for the so-called PCB1 (primary care benefit package 1) and its expanded version, termed as TSEKAP – governing policies on the expanded coverage of the primary care benefit package (Tamang Serbisyo sa Kalusugan ng Pamilya).
Dr. Lagrada started as a municipal health officer in Palawan, Philippines (1997–2001) administering health services as a community physician and a rural health advocate. She worked at the Department of Health (2001–2010) as a medical officer and later as division chief in health policy and planning. Her involvement in the JLN enabled her to learn from and share with peers policy-relevant experiences from low- and middle-income countries like the Philippines that are pursuing similar UHC-related reforms.
