The Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Dr. Femi Thomas, has restated the determination of the Scheme not to hesitate to wield the big stick against any stakeholder, particularly Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) found withholding capitation payment from health care facilities.
A statement by the Head, Media & Public Relations of NHIS, Ayo Osinlu, disclosed that Dr. Thomas reiterated this assurance when members of the National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), led by its president, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja recently.
According to the NHIS boss “we must not allow any stakeholder to strangulate the facilities who are the burden bearers of the health Insurance industry”, the statement added.
“The health care facilities” he said “must survive. And the only way they can survive is when they are paid their capitation as at when due. This, we at the NHIS will ensure,” he stated.
He told the delegation that as part of the process of ensuring probity in the system, the scheme is presently reconciling accounts of about six HMOs, while any of them found wanting will be answerable in accordance with the Act establishing the Scheme.
Thomas appealed to the NMA to show leadership, by calling on its members and other health workers in the public sector to begin to make their own contribution of 1.75% of their salary to the Scheme, to enable it pool enough resources for the expansion of coverage and the benefit package as is being clamoured for.
He used the forum to again assure the nation, that wide ranging reports are being implemented in the Scheme to connect NHIS to the many more people, as well as ensure greater quality of service delivery.
Speaking earlier, the President of NMA, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, said the organisation has come to felicitate with the Executive Secretary on his appointment as the Chief Executive Officer of NHIS, and expressed the Association’s confidence that he will provide the needed leadership that will ultimately transform the health sector in the country.
According to him, NMA’s confidence in the ability of Dr. Thomas to turn the Scheme around is inspired by his enviable track record as a scholar, practitioner and administrator in the nation’s health sector.
“The NHIS under your leadership must not shy away from the urgent task of providing the pivotal role of championing the needed transformation in the health industry”, Dr. Enabulele said.
The NMA leader said the association has resolved to no longer continue to lament on the decay in the health industry but strategize to help in transforming it for the socio-economic progress of the nation.
He therefore assured the management of NHIS that the NMA will continue to give the needed support to it, in its effort to move the health insurance industry in this country to the required level.
