The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has taken steps to checkmate delays in health care delivery.
A statement issued Monday in Abuja by acting director of Information and Public Relations, Emma Ononokpono, said the NHIA in fulfillment of its regulatory role, has directed all its stakeholders on steps aimed at reducing delays in accessing services and ensuring that enrollees receive quality services.
“This has become imperative in view of notable delays in authorisation of treatment and issuance of codes, which continues to negatively impact beneficiaries’ experience.
“These steps consistent with the effective implementation of the NHIA Act 2022, the following changes regarding authorisation of care were approved to help the providers under new law, Health Care Facilities (HCFs) to promptly submit requests for authorisation codes to HMOs to mitigate service access delays to enrollees.
“Where delays occur, beyond the one-hour timeline, the healthcare providers are to proceed to render services to the enrollee and inform NHIA immediately. The NHIA will verify that such services were rendered,” the statement noted.
The statement added that enrollees are to report any delays or barriers to timely access to health service resulting from receiving authorisation codes in excess of the one-hour limit independently to the NHIA.
“For all emergency cases, authorisation codes shall not be required before commencing treatment but shall be obtained with 48 hours of commencing care as stipulated in the operational guidelines and sanctions shall be applied appropriately to entities deliberately delaying authorisation of care,” NHIA stated.