NHIS wants Health Management Organisations investigated for corruption

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.