"Premier Medicaid is at the forefront of advocating community health insurance as a panacea for achieving universal health coverage. We have been able to demonstrate this by floating a community based health insurance in Ayedun Ekiti where we have an enrollee base of over 4000. We will continue to improve on this by extending health insurance to other communities", these are the words of Sir Dr. Kayode Obembe the Vice Chairman and CEO of Premier Medicaid Limited.
Dr. Obembe who is also the National President of the Nigerian. Medical Association explained that the importance of quality healthcare services cannot be over emphasized as it is important in the life and economy of any nation. According to him, countries that take care of their citizens through the provision of quality healthcare delivery systems are economically advanced because the governments understands that their citizens must be in good health to be economically active.
Commenting on the impact of the health maintenance organizations (HMOs) in the National Health Insurance Scheme, the veteran medical. doctor said the HMOs are important to the survival of the scheme and they have been putting in their best to sustain the health insurance business in Nigeria. "As far as the scheme is concerned, the NHIS as the regulator is doing its best at regulating the industry. The last recapitalization exercise in the industry no doubt gave credibility to players in the industry in terms of financial capability because as an HMO, you must have a strong capital base such that your fixed deposit should be enough to support all your enrollees for six months even without getting premiums according to international .standards, this is why the NHIS increased the capital base of HMOs from N50million to N400million and am sure that by the next recapitalization exercise, it will increase to as much as Nlbillion. The only problem is that the regulator also performs the role of HMOs, however we HMOs have continued to sustain the scheme by ensuring a close synergy with the providers so that the enrollees are getting value for their money.
It is rather unfortunate that the act which established health insurance in Nigeria did not make it compulsory for everyone which is why the level of acceptability among Nigerians is low. In advanced countries, health insurance is compulsory and I hope the act will be amended in the nearest future to make it compulsory for all Nigerians because when you save for your health, you have automatically enrolled into preventive healthcare which is less costly and more affordable than curative healthcare. What this implies is that you may not have enough money to visit a hospital when you are sick but once you are covered under health insurance, you don't have to worry about what the treatment will cost you, so preventive healthcare is what health insurance is all about and that is why health insurance is the way forward", he said. As an HMO that takes into cognisance the need to play a role in addressing the issue of infant and maternal mortality, Premier Medicaid has put in place a special benefit package for pregnant women and children under the age of five. This package ensure that children below five years get routine immunization regularly while the pregnant women are covered for pregnancy period, deliveiy and post natal care.
On its feedback mechanism to ensure enrollees are adequately cared for by providers, he said, "we have a vibrant customer service unit and we also give out the mobile numbers of our quality assurance officers to our enrollees. Our quality assurance officers are medical doctors and they are in every zones of the federation, what they do is that if an enrollee has any complaint, they will investigate the issue and make sure it is promptly resolved. For instance, we have had complaints whereby providers would delay treatment for enrollees on health insurance scheme but we believe they are the ones that should be attended to first beCatise the providers have already received capitation from us. Like we always tell our enrollees, we are their lawyers and they should always report to us whenever they are having issues with the providers so that we can take up those issues on their behalf."
Source: The Nation News
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