The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has stated that appropriate sanctions will be imposed on FCT Health Insurance Scheme (FHIS) Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) that fail to make prompt payments to healthcare providers.
This warning was handed down in a statement by Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, on Tuesday in Abuja.
Explaining, Olayinka stated that “FHIS is a social health insurance programme, offering financial protection through access to quality, affordable and equitable healthcare to all FCT residents.
Free enrolment is open to staff of the FCTA and area council staff as well as vulnerable persons, including pregnant women. At the same time, other members of the public can enrol upon payment of N22,500 as premium per annum.”
In a bid to improve the quality of healthcare services provided to the FHIS enrollees, about N4 billion, being outstanding/backlog payments for capitation and fee for service for years 2022 to 2024, was approved by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, and paid between last year and this year, he also stated.
In the statement, Olayinka further explained that the Benefit Package of the FHIS included the Basic Minimum Package of Health Care Services (BMPHS), ranging from promoting, preventive, curative and some rehabilitative care services.
He said, “The services include primary preventive care, screening, primary emergency services, and secondary level care such as dental, mental, eye, ear, nose and throat care, physiotherapy, surgeries, laboratory investigations, radiological investigations such as ultrasound scan, x-rays.
“However, complaints have been received from some healthcare providers concerning non-remittance of their payments by some HMOs, under the excuse that bank details of the hospitals were not available, an excuse not acceptable to the government.
“Therefore, compliance of the HMOs to the prompt remittance of payments to healthcare providers, as well as commitment of the healthcare providers to the discharge of their duties to the FHIS enrollees, will be monitored to sanction defaulters appropriately.”
