Africa-Press – Tanzania. Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dr Dorothy Gwajima, has directed the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) to report to professional bodies officials involving in unethical conducts.
The officials include health staff within the NHIF and those working with health service facilities who collude with Fund’s members to feed false information in medical forms with aim of inflating patient’s treatment costs for their benefits.
Dr Gwajima noted that some of the Fund’s officials who recently involved themselves in such scandals would soon face disciplinary measures.
The minister cited deception and misappropriation of funds as one of challenges the Fund has been facing, calling on the management to put in place a strong system to stop the vice.
She was speaking during an event to mark the climax of NHIF’s 20 years anniversary, celebrated from 1st July, 2021.
Dr Gwajima directed the NHIF to improve its operation systems and where it needed they should seek professional support from the ministry.
On the other hand, she said the Fund should strengthen cooperation with other stakeholders, especially service providers and discuss on challenges and wayward.
Moreover, Dr Gwajima said the government is finalising the universal health coverage bill to be tabled in the Parliament next month, calling on the NHIF to get ready for changes including massive enrolment of new members.
She hinted that the new law will cover all health insurance service providers.
She noted that the government is devoted to ensure Tanzanians of all walks of life get improved health services, thus universal health coverage would be the way to go.
Dr Gwajima applauded NHIF board and management for the ongoing good work to improve services, noting that while the envisioned law will regulate all health insurance institutions, NHIF stands to be the biggest Fund having many members.
Gwajima noted that currently only 14 percent of Tanzania population have been covered with health insurance and only eight percent, equivalent to 4.5 million people are members of the NHIF.
“There is still a job to be done to ensure that more people are registered for health insurance services and NHIF should be prepared to cope with the new changes” she said, adding that the Fund should improve all areas of service provision.
Earlier NHIF’s Director General Benard Konga said the current number of the Fund’s members stands at 4.5 million people by September, 2021. These include civil servants, private employees, farmers and non – formal sector players.
He said the Fund has managed to effectively utilize the information and communication technology by digitalizing its systems to replace paperwork.
Among digitized services include registration and lodging claims which are now available online, something which reduces cost and time.
“The online platform has enabled the Fund to bring its services closer to people as now one can do everything online and get health insurance card within 14 days” he said, adding that the electronic registration centre has also been established.
Talking on some of the achievements of the Fund, Mr Konga said the NHIF has disbursed at least 132.06bn/- in loan to several health facilities in the country as part of the programme to improve services health provision by service providers.
He noted that some 8,482 health facilities have been registered with the Fund. These include government, private health facilities across the nation.
The NHIF boss noted that the management is working hard to ensure many people get services, saying currently there are over 1000 kidney patients getting treatment through the NHIF funding.
