Federal government through the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, has called on Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) to rise up to their responsibilities in fashioning better ways to provide civil servants with quality and affordable healthcare delivery services.
In a statement signed by the director of communications, Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mohammed Ahmed, Yemi-Esan who made this call yesterday during a one-day interactive session with HMOs in Abuja, said if that is done, it would reduce the morbidity rate being experienced in recent times.
According to the head of Civil Service, who was represented by the permanent secretary, Service Welfare Office, Mahmud Kambari, the health of civil servants can no longer be taken for granted, as they die on a daily basis from ailments that are preventable and curable.
She called on the HMOs to partner with the civil service on regular medical check-ups, as well as provide quality medications and comprehensive medical health care to them.
Yemi-Esan also sought to know the fate of the retirees under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the number of civil servants benefitting monthly from the NHIS.
She also tasked them on the need to empower the HMOs with more roles other than mere reporting, insisting that with more roles they will be able to deal with the issues of the enrollees on their own without much reliance on the NHIA.
The NHIA representative, Dr Kapoona Eteng, who spoke on the, “Roles and Responsibilities of HMOs to Enrollees,” disclosed that under the 2022 Act of the NHIA, the roles of the HMOs are to provide private health insurance on complementary and supplementary basis; function as third party in the administration of healthcare; perform administrative functions and many others.
