C'River Health insurance engages TPAs ahead of roll out

Chief Godwin Iyala, Director General, Cross River State Health Insurance Agency

Ahead of the planned roll out of the state's health insurance scheme, Director-General of Cross River State Health Insurance Agency, CRSHIA, Chief Godwin Iyala has expressed the Agency's determination to bring the fruition, governor Ben Ayade's vision of quality and affordable health care for the people of the state.

Iyala spoke during a presentation by the Third Party Administrators, TPAs, preparatory to their formal engagement for effective coverage of health insurance scheme in the state.

Said: Iyala: "The presentation is all about kick-starting the enthronement of Universal Health Coverage in the state. If you can remember, the law was signed in 2016 by His Excellency, Professor Ben Ayade and the flag off was done in 2017."

According to the CRSHIA DG, the Agency is in a hurry to deliver the goods hence the interface with the TPAs.

"We have waited long enough to enthrone UHC and CRSHIA is poised to deliver. The governor, in signing the law promised that every Cross Riverian and resident of Cross River would enjoy affordable and quality  health care, therefore this interaction with the TPAs is meant to kick start it.

"We are engaging the TPAs and ICT providers to make sure that every facility is linked up online.They are telling us the way to go and we too are telling them the modus operandi of how we need to deploy them for effective coverage of both the informal and formal sectors in Cross River," Iyala quipped.

On her part, Director-General of Cross River State Primary Health Care Development Agency, CRSPHCDA, Dr. Janet Ekpenyong said plans were underway to ensure that every community and everybody in Cross River State is compulsorily registered in the health insurance scheme. "We are going to start with the vulnerable groups so as to demonstrate that the scheme is workable," she said.

Speaking in similar vein, representative of United States Agency for International  Development, USAID, Ibiam Azu harped on the indispensability of ICT infrastructure to health insurance coverage.

"For health Insurance to be effective and sustainable, there is need for ICT structures, there is need for ICT infrastructure. These are also for effective implementation of health Insurance because if you do not use ICT, there will be a lot of leakages but with ICT platforms, it is a lot easier to close up the gaps and leakages that exist in health Insurance."

Azu lauded the presentations by the TPAs, saying it provided the opportunity to learn new ideas.

"The  TPAs has given us another opportunity to see new ideas that exist around health Insurance Implementation. The TPAs selected will be deployed to the three senatorial zones of the state to support CRSHIA.

"Health insurance is relatively new to the states and this is the major reason there is need for TPAs who have been in the business of implementing health Insurance," he explained.

Speaking on behalf of other TPAs,  Olaoye Olubukola, after the presentations stressed the need for synergy among all the stakeholders in the scheme for effective implementation. He also emphasized  the importance of enlightenment drive to sensitize the populace, especially in the rural areas about the scheme.

Olubukola described as key, the need for training and retraining of health care providers.