<\/p>\n
By Oso Abidemi\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), has issued a stern warning to Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs), across the country, particularly those operating under the FCT Health Insurance Scheme (FHIS), over delays in remitting payments to hospitals and clinics.<\/p>\n In a statement on Tuesday, Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Public Communications and Social Media, disclosed that the administration will sanction defaulting HMOs that continue to withhold capitation and service fees owed to healthcare providers.<\/p>\n The warning comes despite the approval and release of N4 billion by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to clear outstanding payments covering 2022 to 2024.<\/p>\n The funds, disbursed between last year and this year, were aimed at strengthening service delivery under the FHIS, a social health insurance programme designed to provide financial protection and access to essential healthcare services for FCT residents.<\/p>\n Healthcare providers, however, say that some HMOs have failed to remit payments, claiming the hospitals have not submitted their bank account details; an excuse the administration has dismissed as unacceptable.<\/p>\n The FHIS offers free enrollment for FCTA staff, area council employees, and vulnerable groups such as pregnant women and children under five.<\/p>\n Other residents can enroll in the scheme at an annual premium of N22,500.<\/p>\n The benefit package includes promotive, preventive, curative, and selected rehabilitative services.<\/p>\n These range from primary care, screenings, and emergency services to surgeries, physiotherapy, radiological and laboratory investigations.<\/p>\n Olayinka emphasized that both HMOs and healthcare providers will be monitored for compliance, with defaulters facing sanctions.<\/p>\n The FCTA also announced notable strides in the health scheme\u2019s implementation, including full payment of backlogs dating from 2022, timely disbursement of capitation to HMOs, and an upward review of capitation rates.<\/p>\n The government has also accredited 100 Primary Healthcare Centres across the FCT to broaden access and ensure quality service delivery.<\/p>\n In a further show of support for vulnerable populations, the FCTA confirmed that all pregnant women enrolled through the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), at Primary Healthcare Centres in the six Area Councils will continue to receive free antenatal care, laboratory tests, medical consultations, and delivery services.<\/p>\n The statement added that secondary referrals, including caesarean sections, blood transfusions, and treatment for obstetric complications like eclampsia, are also fully covered at the 14 General Hospitals in the FCT under the BHCPF.<\/p>\n The FCTA\u2019s warning signals a broader push to enforce accountability among healthcare intermediaries and ensure that public funds released for health service delivery are used for their intended purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Oso Abidemi\u00a0 The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), has issued a stern warning to Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs), across the country, particularly those operating under the FCT Health Insurance Scheme (FHIS), over delays in remitting payments to hospitals and clinics. In a statement on Tuesday, Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant to the FCT […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":71759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abuja-reports","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71760,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71758\/revisions\/71760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}