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Private Medical Outfits Shun NHIS
- By Rosemary Onuoha
- Published Wednesday 28th 2009
- InsuranceWorld
- Unrated
PRIVATE medical outfits in the country are still shunning the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) initiated by the federal government.
As such, private healthcare providers have been called upon to make their services available for the scheme to benefit a greater portion of the people.
Dr. Patrick Korie, general manager of Managed Healthcare Services Limited (MHS), a health management office accredited by the NHIS, who made the assertion, noted that there is too much dependence on government hospitals.
Korie, who spoke to BusinessWorld enjoined healthcare outfits that provide medical services at affordable cost to avail themselves of the scheme.
While giving a pass mark on the speed at which the scheme is moving, Korie enthused that it is only a matter of time before the whole of Nigeria is covered, stating, “if we put it in quantity we can say that the level of success recorded so far is more than 50 per cent because currently all the public servants in the federal civil service are covered and they are all receiving treatment. But we can still do better because this is just a small portion of Nigerians that are covered and we are aiming at covering the entire nation.”
On the objectives of the scheme, Korie reiterated that one of the objectives is to protect people from excessive medical bills even as efforts are being made to make sure that the organised private sector key into the scheme, adding that the states are already keying in.
In his words, “Take for example the wife of a level one officer in the civil service who delivers through caesarian section that costs more than N100, 000. The scheme to a large extent will help alleviate medical bills for such an officer.”
On complaints by some medical providers that the funds they get from the HMOs are seldom enough, Korie explained that some of the providers complaining are those with small numbers of enrollees, adding that those with large number of enrollees are not complaining.
According to him, “Some providers receive as much as a million naira monthly for provision of primary care and we know that the incident rate is less than that so the pool of funds remains there. So things like caesarian section are paid for as secondary care because we don’t depend on what is paid as capitation to provide for caesarian section.”
He therefore stressed that it is wrong for such provider with large number of enrollees to say that what is being paid as capitation for individual is not enough to take care of that individual, stating “it is time to educate the provider to tell him the holistic truth that the small portion of money are pulled together to provide service if the need arises because when you pull these funds together you will find out that it can provide healthcare.”
But for the provider that doesn’t have high number of enrollees, Korie said, “What we advise is to be patient and make sure that they provide good services because it is their good services that will attract more enrollees. But if they are bad, the little enrollees they have will go away to where they will receive better treatment. Any provider that wants increase in the number of enrollees should improve on his or her services.”
He maintained that the NHIS is a success story despite that it is just starting, stating it is possible for the scheme to cover the entire nation.
As such, private healthcare providers have been called upon to make their services available for the scheme to benefit a greater portion of the people.
Dr. Patrick Korie, general manager of Managed Healthcare Services Limited (MHS), a health management office accredited by the NHIS, who made the assertion, noted that there is too much dependence on government hospitals.
Korie, who spoke to BusinessWorld enjoined healthcare outfits that provide medical services at affordable cost to avail themselves of the scheme.
While giving a pass mark on the speed at which the scheme is moving, Korie enthused that it is only a matter of time before the whole of Nigeria is covered, stating, “if we put it in quantity we can say that the level of success recorded so far is more than 50 per cent because currently all the public servants in the federal civil service are covered and they are all receiving treatment. But we can still do better because this is just a small portion of Nigerians that are covered and we are aiming at covering the entire nation.”
On the objectives of the scheme, Korie reiterated that one of the objectives is to protect people from excessive medical bills even as efforts are being made to make sure that the organised private sector key into the scheme, adding that the states are already keying in.
In his words, “Take for example the wife of a level one officer in the civil service who delivers through caesarian section that costs more than N100, 000. The scheme to a large extent will help alleviate medical bills for such an officer.”
On complaints by some medical providers that the funds they get from the HMOs are seldom enough, Korie explained that some of the providers complaining are those with small numbers of enrollees, adding that those with large number of enrollees are not complaining.
According to him, “Some providers receive as much as a million naira monthly for provision of primary care and we know that the incident rate is less than that so the pool of funds remains there. So things like caesarian section are paid for as secondary care because we don’t depend on what is paid as capitation to provide for caesarian section.”
He therefore stressed that it is wrong for such provider with large number of enrollees to say that what is being paid as capitation for individual is not enough to take care of that individual, stating “it is time to educate the provider to tell him the holistic truth that the small portion of money are pulled together to provide service if the need arises because when you pull these funds together you will find out that it can provide healthcare.”
But for the provider that doesn’t have high number of enrollees, Korie said, “What we advise is to be patient and make sure that they provide good services because it is their good services that will attract more enrollees. But if they are bad, the little enrollees they have will go away to where they will receive better treatment. Any provider that wants increase in the number of enrollees should improve on his or her services.”
He maintained that the NHIS is a success story despite that it is just starting, stating it is possible for the scheme to cover the entire nation.
