MTN, Salt & Einstein MTS partner on mobile health insurance

MTN Nigeria in collaboration with Salt & Einstein MTS has announced a strategic partnership to launch a mobile based universal health insurance service known as Y’ello Health under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

According to the firms, this service will provide Nigerians affordable health insurance cover on a pre-paid basis.

The Y’ello Health cover will afford mobile subscribers the opportunity to opt into a micro healthcare insurance scheme through Health Management Organizations (HMO’s) using their mobile phones for a range of pre-defined medical treatments for which affordable premium can also be remitted through the subscribers’ mobile phone.

The executive secretary of NHIS, Dr. Femi Thomas said, “MTN is a large player in the Nigerian economy, having a good number of registered Nigerians on its database. To be able to reach out to Nigerians, we at NHIS decided to partner with Salt & Einstein MTS and MTN on this new initiative to achieve “Universal Health Coverage” for Nigerians nationwide.

He explained that the partnership became crucial in view of the need to extend health insurance to Nigerians from all walks of life.

Also speaking on the initiative, the Executive Chairman of Salt and Einstein MTS, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe said his vast experience in mobile technology and telecoms in Nigeria will be harnessed to drive the scheme.

According to him, having identified the need to leverage the market penetration and unmatched reach of mobile telecoms in Nigeria, statistics revealed that mobile telecoms subscription in Nigeria is over 120 million which creates adequate grounds for direct health insurance provision to Nigerians who without this would have no access to the NHIS.

Meanwhile, MTN Sales & Distributions Executive, Omatsola Barrow said, “MTN’s motivation to partner on the health insurance initiative with the Salt & Einstein MTS and NHIS, is driven by the firm’s passion to reduce exclusion and social disparities by supporting government’s vision of delivering health care for all as well as to make health care mobile by integrating it into the MTN broader digital strategy”

The MTN Yello Health Insurance will enable customers visit the hospital twice monthly or up to 7 times annually to a maximum treatment cover of N80,000.00 annually. It also gives access to over 6000 hospitals across the country currently registered on the NHIS scheme.