By Moses Emorinken, Abuja
As part of efforts geared towards the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for all Nigerians, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has partnered the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA).
According to a statement by the Head of Media and Public Relations of the NHIS, Emmanuel Ononokpono, the understanding was reached when the Director-General of NOSDRA, Mr Idris Musa paid a courtesy visit to the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Prof Mohammed Sambo, at the Scheme’s Corporate Head Office in Abuja.
Sambo harped on the Scheme’s commitment to ensuring that all Nigerians in the public and private sector have access to affordable and quality healthcare, maintaining that the Scheme had begun the implementation of a ten-year strategic plan that will birth UHC in 2030 in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He said: “Great nations and organisations are built on carefully articulated and designed plans. In the same vein, UHC can be achieved through the vehicle of the ten-year strategic plan.”
On coverage of the public sector, Sambo told his guest that nearly all workers in federal government payroll and their dependents have been enrolled to receive care under the Scheme, adding that its flagship programme-GIFSHIP is a window for other categories of people outside the formal sector to receive health insurance.
On efforts to reposition the Scheme for effectiveness, Sambo emphasized that NHIS was currently being driven by a three-point agenda reforms, listing them as value-reorientation, transparency and accountability and accelerating the drive towards the attainment of universal health coverage, adding that the reforms was consistent with President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration’s Next level agenda on health.
In an apparent response to HMOs’ indebtedness to healthcare facilities, Sambo said a reconciliation exercise between HMOs and Healthcare facilities conducted under the watchful oversight of the Scheme last year yielded the recovery of funds, adding that the imperatives of strengthening the system to ensure that facilities are never owed by HMOs remain.
Hinting on the outlook of HMOs’ operations, Sambo stated that the present arrangement where organizations selected HMOs on behalf of their staff who are beneficiaries under the Scheme will be replaced before the end of the year with an electronic platform that will allow NHIS beneficiaries to choose their fund managers.
Speaking earlier, the director general of NOSDRA, Mr. Idris Musa, lauded the sundry reforms being carried out by the Prof Sambo’s leadership, and described them as a welcome development.
Leave a Reply