The National Health Insurance Scheme is set for an uncertain situation in the next ten days as
Private health care providers have threatened to suspend all contracts with private health insurance companies in Nigeria over poor tariffs and mounting debt effective January .31.
President of Healthcare Providers Association of Nigeria (HCPAN), Dr. Adeyeye Arigbabuwo, disclosed this at a news conference in Lagos.
He said the Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) remittances were abysmally low in private health insurance as in view of the escalation in costs of health goods and services.
“We suffer losses from the disparity between what HMOs offered as a premium on enrollees and the increasing cost of services,” Arigbabuwo said, adding that the association wanted HMOs to adjust existing contract documents using HCPAN tariffs as benchmark.
“The association will no longer tolerate owing providers in excess of 30 days as such HMOs will be mandated to pay cumulative interests on such debts,” he said.
A solution is, however, being sought around the threat issued by private health providers as the president of the Health and Managed Care Association of Nigeria (HMCAN), Dr Leke Osunniyi, said HMOs were currently dialoguing with HCPAN, to resolve the matter amicably.
Dr, Osunniyi said: “HMOs are paid by the companies and private entities that pay them to provide the health insurance for their staff. So, we’re currently dialoguing with the leadership of the healthcare providers.”
He said he has spoken with the president of HCPAN, Arigbabuwo, imploring him to give enough time to resolve the matter amicably.
“We have a list of tariffs, and we signed a document with our clients to say ‘okay we all agree that treatment of malaria, for example, will be N5,000, malaria test itself will be N1,000.
“However, the healthcare providers are saying ‘we can’t treat malaria for N5,000 anymore because the cost of things has gone up.
