By Onomiguren Agbamu
The Director General, and Chief Executive Officer of the Delta State Contributory Health Commission, Dr. Isaac Akpoveta has said the state government will sanction any hospital found guilty of forwarding bills of services not rendered to patients to the health commission for payment.
Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the Delta State Contributory Health Commission stated this in Asaba while sensitizing hundreds of civil servants on on upgrade of its services and policy review and frowned at a situation where hospitals collect money from beneficiaries of the health scheme for services covered by the contributory health scheme.
Dr. Akpoveta noted that the commission was set to implement the various sanctions for offenders, which according to him range from one hundred thousand naira.
Akpoveta hinted that civil servants should raise alarm where they are denied health services, including the provision of drugs, stressing that the commission had made upfront payments for drugs and other health services to be provided for outpatients.
Dr Akpoveta said he had employed and deployed three hundred health service quality monitors across approved hospitals to rid the health care providers of fraud in drug dispensing and computation of bills on services provided for patients.
He said, ”In terms of sanction, yes, it is in place. I mentioned a hospital that collected four hundred and fifty thousand naira for a caesarean section, and we are returning the money to the woman, and we will sanction the hospital to pay a fine of one hundred thousand naira as a punishment for doing that, and if it happens again, we will strike out the name of the hospital. Whether it’s a government hospital or not, we insist that the right thing be done because it is fraud for the hospital to collect money from a pregnant woman under the equity plan that has been paid by the Delta State Government”, Dr. Akpoveta stated.
He said due to huge bill for blood transfusion, the commission had to remove payment for blood and oxygen from the scheme coverage.
”There is no blood in Delta. There is a need to encourage people to donate blood willingly. We observed that hospitals will collect money from patients for blood and still forward bills of such blood to the Delta State Contributory Health Commission for payment.”
”These are the innovations we are putting in place. Already, we have more than 2.6 million enrollees, being the highest in the country. We want all Deltans to be registered in the scheme. All the innovations we are putting into the scheme are to ensure quality services.”
”We are helping hospitals to create health insurance units to ensure that beneficiaries are rendered quick health services. The commission has four plans, including the Equity Plan, which guarantees free quality healthcare for pregnant women, deliveries, and children under five years.”
”But now, all the drugs are being dispensed to eighty percent of patients right in the various health facilities. Labour leaders, workers attested to that fact that now they are having good hospitals.”
He commended Delta State civil servants for embracing the contributory health scheme, saying that their contribution is key to the sustenance of the scheme.
The Delta State Contributory Health Commission Director General who gave an assurance that a lot of innovations to protect workers had been put in place, solicited their continued cooperation.
Dr Akpoveta said all pregnant women who enjoy free healthcare under the equity plan, must register as residents in the state with utilities bills, NIN registration, and voters cards.
He hinted that there had been influx of pregnant women from neighbouring states to take advantage of the free healthcare for pregnant women and children under five years .
According to him, Delta State Government had taken steps to ensure that only pregnant women resident in Delta will enjoy free healthcare .
He urged all enrollees to have the new health identity card issued by the State Contributory Health Commission to enable them access quality healthcare.
In a remark, the Chairman of Trade Union Congress, Delta State, Comrade Martins Bolum said the gathering afforded civil servants the opportunity to clear grey areas in the healthcare , and commended the Delta State Contributory Health Commission for steps being taken to improve health services.
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