NHIS Plans to Digitalise Health Insurance

Dr. Femi Thomas, executive secretary of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), yesterday said the body had signed a Memorandum of Understanding to digitalise health insurance in Nigeria.

He said this at the fifth year anniversary and inauguration of Redcare Health Services Limited head office in Ilupeju, Lagos.

Thomas, who noted that digitalising health insurance was to improve on the standard of education in the country, urged Health Maintenance Organisations to embrace adapt to the mobile system.

He said, “The business of health maintenance is growing day by day in Nigeria with new challenges that we have to cope with. We want to make health insurance paperless by next month(July); enrollment, monitoring will be digitalised.

“We just signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Mobile Health Insurance and will become operational in next few weeks in Nigeria. It means people will now be able to register with their mobile devices, pay, and choose their HMOs. It also means that HMOs must make themselves more visible for Nigerians to access them.

“With it, notification of referrals will be digitalised and transfer will be easier. The HMOs are expected to comply or face sanction. The device will only cost N250 subscription monthly.”

Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Jide Idris noted that it was necessary for government at all levels to be committed to solving the health care challenges in the country.

“We have our challenges in our health sector but with commitment, it can be combated,” he said.

Prof. Olu Akinyanju, chairman of the occasion, stressed that more enlightenment was needed to make health insurance achieve its target in Nigeria.

“We need to educate and enlighten our people more on the need for them to have health insurance. Since the establishment of NHIS, I have observed that health insurance business has grown tremendously throughout the country and have been embraced by those who were initially skeptical about it, but also by public institutions, private individuals, as well as corporate entities,” he said.

Dr. Babatunde Salako, managing director of Redcare explained that the medical centre operated on the standard created by regulatory agencies, noting that it was committed to providing quality health care delivery.