Don’t leave hospitals without your drugs, FHIS director tells enrollees
The Director of the Health Insurance Scheme (FHIS) of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Dr. Ahmed Danfulani, has advised patients who have enrolled for the scheme to always insist on getting their drugs whenever they go for treatment in government hospitals.
Dr. Danfulani, who spoke to journalists during a stakeholders’ forum on claims management for medical directors of FCT district and general hospitals, pharmacists, accountants, FHIS desk officers and Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) yesterday in Abuja, said the scheme was working hard to ensure all enrollees got drugs when they were prescribed.
He said, “One of the main things we have discussed is out-of-stock in hospitals, and we have discussed ways of surmounting the challenge. And I have always instructed enrollees that anytime you go to hospital, don’t leave that hospital without your drugs. You should call us if any hospital refuses to give you drugs. It is your right, and it is one of the basic reasons you are enrolled in the scheme. I am aware that some hospitals have made arrangements to even buy outof-stock drugs specifically for their insurance patients.”
He, however, said when patients insisted on getting drugs that were not prescribed by the doctors, it was not the problem of the hospitals or the FHIS.
He further said the sensitisation of the medical directors and other stakeholders was key to the success of the scheme, adding that all staff working in the FCTA had been captured and that it was important to ensure that the scheme was run efficiently.
Dr. Danfulani added that, “The manner in which hospitals send their claims is not in a proper way, and some of them are actually losing money and we have to educate them on how to write their claims in a proper way.”
The Medical Director of Nyanya General Hospital, Dr. Okpe Philip, said the FHIS of the FCTA was working very well and that it was even ahead of the national scheme, adding that the insurance was an opportunity to improve the health of the residents.