‘Bayelsa Health Insurance Scheme Has Carved A Niche For Itself’

By Amos Okioma
LAGOS JULY 11TH (NEWSRANGERS)-The Bayelsa State Health Insurance Scheme will become a role model for others to emulate going by the success it has recorded under one of its inception, but there is still room for improvement.
Dr Zuoboemi Agadah, the Executive Secretary of the Bayelsa State Health Insurance Scheme ( BHIS ) during an interactive workshop between the BHIS Management and Health Care Providers made the statement in his opening remarks .He disclosed that the Scheme has registered over 80,000 enrollees and remains the only state with functional health insurance scheme even though it has not achieved perfection, hence the imperative of constant and regular interactive sessions.
According to him, due to the modest achievements many states have indicated interest to understudy it and replicate same in their respective states and from statistical data health seekers , especially civil servants attitudinal behavior has improved and very soon it will be expanded to the community.
” There are plans to celebrate BHIS one year anniversary during which health care providers that distinguished themselves will receive awards” he said.
According to Dr Obioma Obikeze who spoke on ” Health Insurance in Bayelsa State ” said the importance of a regular interface between the management and Health care providers can’t be over emphasized.He disclosed that before the civil servants agreed to contribute to the scheme there were a lot of lobbying and advocacy and for sustainability their interest were guaranteed so that they would not fight back . ” Hence two labour leaders were included in BHIS Management Board ” he said.
He also called on Healthcare providers to provide quality and basic infrastructure to attract enrollees because any provider with wrong Inputs will deny patronage, as better services rendered, they the more the health care providers will smile to the banks.
Speaking on ” Overview of BHIS Operations So Far ” Dr Pele Ngbuku , Head of Medical Services and Quality Assurance ” posited that for the scheme to succeed it has become imperative for regular interactive sessions to enable the department aggregate complaints and improve on recommendations and that is why there has been regular tour of facilities to monitor their performances.
On their experiences, some care providers Dr Sagbe and Owutuama Spiff – Ebi highlighted some bottlenecks , principally was the the absence of motivation to encourage the front office staff and they did not only applauded the management , but urged it for more and frequent workshops for them to become abreast with best practices.

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