TWO HOSPITALS WERE PENALIZED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF ANAMBRA FOR ABUSING ASHIA ENROLLEES.

Tunji Wusu –

The Anambra State Government has strongly denounced what it considers to be the state’s hospitals taking advantage of State Health Insurance Scheme participants.

Dr. Simeon Onyemaechi, the managing director of the Anambra State Health Insurance Agency (ASHIA), stressed that the government did not approve of the development because it is not owed any hospitals under the program when he discussed it with a journalist correspondent in Awka on Thursday.

Onyemaechi, who revealed that the State Government sanctioned two hospitals this year for demanding additional money from ASHIA patients for services covered by the health insurance scheme, insisted that the government has never failed to pay capitation to hospitals that provide services to ASHIA enrollees.

He was concerned, however, that despite all of the public awareness efforts in both social and conventional media, people were still being exploited by some hospitals under the plan.

He claimed that in order for the agency to be able to pursue redress on their behalf, enrollees in the health insurance program have been repeatedly advised to report instances of exploitation using the phone numbers on the cards that were given to them upon registration and other available feedback mechanisms.

The head of ASHIA noted that the organization does not hesitate to delist medical facilities engaged in the exploitation and mistreatment of State Health Insurance Scheme beneficiaries, and that two hospitals were delisted this year for demanding additional fees for treating conditions covered by ASHIA.