Tag Archives: NHIS

23,000 ghost enrolees removed from the National Health Insurance Scheme

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About 23,000 ghost enrolees have been removed from the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, the scheme said on Tuesday.

The removal of the enrolees, who have been enjoying the benefits of the insurance scheme, created disagreement between the NHIS and other health management organisations.

The Executive Secretary, NHIS, Usman Yusuf, made this known in Abuja at the award of ISO/IEC 20000 standard certification to Galaxy Backbone Plc.

The NHIS boss said he worked in collaboration with three other government agencies to remove ghost enrolees who had been enjoying the benefits of the insurance scheme illegally.

He listed the agencies as Galaxy Backbone Plc, Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited and the National Identity Management Commission.

Mr. Yusuf, however, said the exercise has brought a friction between the NHIS and Health Management Organisations in the country.

The NHIS boss said, “I have a crack ICT team and the members have worked with Galaxy Backbone, the NIMC and NigComSat to remove the ghost enrolees.

“For this, the HMOs are fighting me, but we have to make sure that the right people get the money.”

On his part, the Deputy British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Harriet Thompson, said Information Technology had a critical role to play in the delivery of government services to the citizens.

In his contribution, the Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Solomon Dalung, urged ICT professionals to deploy the use of technology to tackle poverty and youth unemployment.

He noted that youth unemployment, if not addressed, was a time bomb waiting to explode.

Mr. Dalung also challenged ICT experts to come up with innovations that would take Nigeria out of recession.

The ISO 20000, an international standard, helps organisations to demonstrate excellence and best practices in IT service management.

The standard ensures that companies can achieve evidence-based benchmarks to continuously improve their delivery of IT services, towards the growth of the society.

NHIS wants Health Management Organisations investigated for corruption

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The Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, Usman Yusuf, has launched a campaign to rid the scheme of corruption, inefficiency and impunity.

According to a statement by his office on Thursday, Mr. Yusuf disclosed this during a courtesy call by the NHIS Management on the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, in Abuja.

The NHIS was established by the Nigerian government to enable citizens enjoy easy access to health care services.

Mr. Yusuf said his mandate as the Executive Secretary was to sanitize the scheme and make it work for everybody.

He decried alleged irregularities in the operations of Health Maintenance Organisations and ill-treatment that enrolees often encounter while accessing services at hospitals.

The Executive Secretary lamented that the scheme had not done well in the past, saying some HMOs and healthcare providers treat enrolees like lepers.

He said the NHIS as an institution had paid so much money to the HMOs from 2005 but that there was nothing to show for the expenditure.

Mr. Yusuf urged the ICPC to begin probing the activities of NHIS and HMOs who in one way or the other had defrauded the system and short-changed enrolees.

He stressed that there was no way Nigeria could achieve universal coverage if it continued to give resources to people who do not deserve them.

He said that the visit to the ant-graft agency was to build consensus and support among stakeholders towards repositioning the NHIS for effective service delivery.

In his response, the ICPC Chairman, Ekpo Nta, commended the Executive Secretary for his sincerity and doggedness in the fight against corruption in the NHIS and his commitment to repositioning the scheme for better service delivery.

Mr. Nta, who was represented by the Commissions’ Secretary, Elvis Oglafa, assured the Management of NHIS of ICPC’s support in the fight against corruption in NHIS.

Healthcare: Reps ask NHIS to halt payment to HMOs

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The House of Representatives on Thursday called on the National Health Insurance, NHIS, to put on hold further quarterly release of funds to the Health Maintenance Organisations, HMOs, pending the outcome of investigation.

The House also mandated its Committee on Health Care Services to commence investigation into the activities of the HMOs and healthcare providers for the past eight years.

This is with a view to identifying their level of compliance with the relevant provisions of the Act and determine the reasons for the alleged poor state of services to the enrolees.

The resolutions of the House followed the adoption of a motion on the urgent need to investigate the compliance rate of funds by the healthcare providers and inhuman treatment of enrolees, moved by Chike Okafor (APC-Imo).

Leading the debate, Mr. Okafor noted that the NHIS was set up to provide health care for Nigerians at affordable cost through various pre-payment systems.

The lawmaker also noted that one of the cardinal responsibilities of the scheme was to maintain high health care standard to beneficiaries.

He expressed dismay that enrolees were being short changed and used as conduit pipes to raise money for the HMO’s and healthcare providers.

The lawmaker said, “Enrolees are treated like lepers while trying to access the services; many strategies have been adopted by healthcare providers and HMOs to deprive them their right to quality treatment and attention.”

Mr. Okafor claimed that the HMOs had received over N351 billion from the scheme since its inception in 2005.

“It is regrettable to realize that the service covers less than four per cent of Nigerians and there are reports of alleged diversion of contributions amounting to billions of naira.’’

He further revealed that the scheme paid HMOs three months upfront to enable them provide timely and qualitative health care services to enrolees.

The lawmaker, however, noted that ”the reverse is the case as enrolees are being short changed and the services remain poor.

The Committee on Health Care Services is expected to report its findings to the House within four weeks.

Senate Probes Secret Recruitment, Lopsided Appointments In NHIS

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The Senate Tuesday commenced investigation into alleged illegal recruitment and lopsided appointments of some management staff of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

The probe also covers NHIS expenditure on trainings and travels.

Management staff of the scheme led by its Executive Secretary, Mr. Usman Yusuf, appeared before the Senate Committee on Health yesterday to answer question bordering on alleged illegal recruitment, lopsided appointments and expenditure on training and travels.

Yusuf told the committee that the new recruits were on “secondment” and not on appointment.

Asked if the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, who was present at the hearing, was aware of the “secondments” in the NHIS, the Executive Secretary answered in the negative.

He said, “No, he (Adewole) is not aware.”

The committee queried the NHIS boss why he spent N150 million on trainings and travels between January and June 2016, while the amount spent for the same purposes between July, August and September was between N2 million and N4 million, and the sum of N412 million was spent for the same purposes in October alone.

The committee noted that it received a petition against the NHIS in which the petitioner claimed that while the number of general managers of NHIS was raised from 23 to 25, their appointments were not in line with the Federal Character principle.

The panelists however declined to disclose the name of the petitioner as well as to provide
a copy of the petition to Yusuf.

The committee said that the petitioner claimed that the North-Central geopolitical zone, which had three representatives, now had five.

The petitioner was also said to have claimed that the North-East, which had three, now has
four while the North-West was raised from six to nine; South-East remained three; South-South dropped from four to three; while South-West reduced from four to one.

Yusuf insisted that, “It will be for the sake of fair hearing that I get a copy of the petition before I respond (to the allegation). I am not aware of any petition and I can only respond to the petition that I can see and read. I need to know what is in the petition and where the petition is coming from.”

Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Senator Lanre Tejuoso, said that Yusuf should be able to state if the figures were correct or not even without seeing the petition or knowing it came from.

The Executive Secretary insisted on seeing the petition before confirming or refuting the allegations.

He said, “I need fair hearing; I need to see a copy of that petition.”

The committee declined to grant the request for the NHIS boss to see a copy of the petition before responding to the allegations

The committee said that since the allegations were against the NHIS and the person of Yusuf, they were not obliged to give out a copy of the petition to the Executive Secretary.
A member of the committee, Senator Mao Ohuabunwa, noted the committee would confirm the allegations after going through the nominal roll of the NHIS.
The committee said that the NHIS boss failed to provide its nominal roll, which was the first information it requested from the scheme.

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Senate probes secret recruitment, lopsided appointments in NHIS