NHIS is a Fraud, Says Pharmacists Association
- By Uchenna Kalu
- Published June 7th, 2010
- News
- Unrated
THE national chairman of Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN), Dr Ejiro Foyibo, has described the multi-billion naira National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) as a fraud.
According to Dr Foyibo, the bane of the scheme is the mode of payment, Global Capitation, “whereby a service provider, mainly the doctor, is paid the money for all the activities associated with the scheme and is then expected to pay others”.
Unverified reports put the number of enrollees under this platform at about seven million. All federal civil servants in the country and those of some states are registered in the programme. Enrollees have their contributions deducted from source. The remittances form the pool from which N550 is paid to service providers on behalf of each enrollee.
An estimated N3.8 billion is paid out to service providers monthly in proportion with the number of enrollees registered in that facility. Capitation is a quotation of money which the NHIS sends every month on behalf of any registered person to the health care provider, whether that person visits a facility of choice or not.
Though there have been calls from some quarters for an upward review of the capitation, it has, however, been N550 since 2005 for the primary level of care.
According to Dr Foyibo, the bane of the scheme is the mode of payment, Global Capitation, “whereby a service provider, mainly the doctor, is paid the money for all the activities associated with the scheme and is then expected to pay others”.
Unverified reports put the number of enrollees under this platform at about seven million. All federal civil servants in the country and those of some states are registered in the programme. Enrollees have their contributions deducted from source. The remittances form the pool from which N550 is paid to service providers on behalf of each enrollee.
An estimated N3.8 billion is paid out to service providers monthly in proportion with the number of enrollees registered in that facility. Capitation is a quotation of money which the NHIS sends every month on behalf of any registered person to the health care provider, whether that person visits a facility of choice or not.
Though there have been calls from some quarters for an upward review of the capitation, it has, however, been N550 since 2005 for the primary level of care.
