About 17 Health Management Organisations (HMOs) under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) have been delisted, Mrs Ahunna Ochor, the Coordinator of the scheme in Enugu State, has said.She said that some of the delisted HMOs collapsed on their own and owed some health care providers several millions of naira. “About 17 of the HMOs were recently delisted. Some collapsed on their own and we found out that they owed some health care providers quite a lot of money that run into millions. “Some of those owed have written to the executive secretary of the scheme through the state office and we await the outcome,’’ she said.
Ochor said that there was the possibility that the debts would be paid and appealed to the health care providers to route their complaints through the state office. She said that the state office had taken major steps to fix some of the challenges and lapses noticed in the implementation of the scheme in the state. The state coordinator also said there had been series of complaints by enrollees against health care providers and some of the HMOs in the state. “We recently had a stakeholders’ forum made up of the health care providers, HMOs, enrollees and players in the organised private sector. “We decided to bring all these players together in order to listen to one another and proffer solutions to the reported teething challenges in implementing the scheme,” she said.
Ahunna said that the forum was a huge success and a communiqué was drafted at the end of the meeting. “We had a communiqué which we shall forward to our national office and we believe that the desired changes shall be enforced,’’she said. She said that there was the need for all stakeholders to close ranks to ensure the success of the scheme. “Our aim is to comfortably sell the programme to Nigerians in order to reduce the disease burden of our people. “So, it is our duty to preserve this scheme because if it failed, all of us have failed,” Ochor said. (NAN)
Source:Leadership Online
