The Director General of the NHIA, Prof. Mohammed Sambo, disclosed this on Friday in Akwanga, Nasarawa State at the sixth annual conference of the Association of Nigerian Health Journalists, with the theme ‘Health Security, Universal Health Coverage, and the National Health Insurance Act: How Can Nigeria Get It Right: The Role of the Media in Perspective’.
The NHIA also said it had set up a committee on the implementation of the NHIA Act.
The PUNCH reports that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), signed into law the National Health Insurance Authority Bill 2022 on May 19, 2022.
“As part of our healthcare reforms, I have signed into law the recently passed National Health Insurance Authority Bill 2022, which repeals the National Health Insurance Scheme Act. We will ensure the full implementation of the new act, to provide coverage for all Nigerians,” he said.
Sambo, who was represented by the Public Affairs Manager, NHIA, Emmanuel Ononokpono, said, “We started the implementation of the NHIA act the very day it was signed into law. The component of making it mandatory is where the real challenge is.
“We have to seek the agreement of agencies like the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigeria Immigration Service, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company to ensure that they go along with this act and you know it does not always come easy but a committee has been set up to interface with these agencies and ensure that the act is implemented because the salvation of the health sector lies in this act.
“When this act works, our health system will work. So we have started that implementation.”
He also clarified that the health insurance covers a wide range of surgeries, tests, and scans.
“Someone goes to the hospital, he or she is told NHIA does not cover CS, meanwhile, that is a complete falsehood. NHIA covers a whole range of surgeries, a whole range of tests, and a whole range of scans. But, you go there and they tell you that it is not covered, so we conduct quality assurance checks on hospitals, we encourage our enrollees to report to us and our numbers and call centres are always active, call us and we will intervene. We also have the power to sanction hospitals.
“If an enrollee goes to the hospital and she is meant to have a Caesarean Section, you shouldn’t pay because you are covered, just get your receipt, approach us and we will pursue a reimbursement,” he added.
