The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has revealed it is working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to improve digital transformation with regard to health insurance in Nigeria.
In a statement by Emmanuel Ononokpono, NHIS Deputy General Manager, the health insurance industry regulator said it has presented its digital transformation framework to the EFCC for the purpose of fast-tracking the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the country, according to NAN.
According to him, the framework was designed to deploy technology to address the processes as well as the effect real-time results in the delivery of health insurance services.
What Ononokpono is saying
Speaking on behalf of Prof. Mohammed Sambo, Executive Secretary, NHIS, Emmanuel said that the trajectory of the framework use to depend on manual processes and rudimentary technology in the operation of health insurance as critical data was hosted outside the country by a South African firm.
He, however, said that this led to issues of inefficiency in service delivery and security integrity of data ass the contracting firm brings little value either in human or material resources to the system.
He also said that the previous approvals for the execution of eNHIS in 2016 run into contracting glitches, confining the initiative to uncertainties and non-implementation. According to him, the decision to collaborate with Nigerian Communication Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) and leveraging Presidential Executive Orders 003 and 005 and Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval ensured eNHIS became a reality.
Listing the benefits of the automation of health insurance operations to include connectivity among stakeholders, real-time service provision, resolution of complaints, data analytics and effective call management system, among others, he added that partnership with NIGCOMSAT saved huge funds for government.
Ononokpono also stated that the EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, is working to integrate the eNHIS system with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) database to ensure security of data and servers for backups in various locations – for the purpose of synchronisation – to avoid duplication of data collection.
