Akwa Ibom health insurance has begun the accreditation of healthcare facilities sequel to the commencement of the scheme in the State.
The accreditation team comprising officials from the National Health Insurance Agency, the state Primary Healthcare Development Agency and Akwa Ibom Health Insurance Agency (AKSHIA) are expected to visit all the 31 Local Government Councils of the State
Igbemi Arthur Igbemi, a medical doctor and the executive secretary of the Akwa Ibom State health insurance agency, made this know when he visited Augustine Umoh, the State Commissioner for Health in Uyo, the State capital.
Igbemi also presented a work plan developed by the Agency in collaboration with National Health Insurance Agency (NHIA), Ministry of Health and State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (AKSPHCDA) to facilitate the take off of Health Insurance in the state.
Responding, Augustine Umoh, the Commissioner urged the Agency to be diligent in their work so as to earn trust of the Akwa Ibom residents.
Umoh noted that trust remains one of the cardinal ingredients that drives successful insurance scheme in anywhere in the world.
“As you continue the processes of ensuring easy financial access to health for the Akwa Ibom residents, you must do diligence work because health insurance depends so much on trust. When trust is gone, you can’t run an insurance programme.
“People must trust our service to be able to insure their health, and to improve the process of that trust, it means that we must offer good service. To be able to offer good service, we must have good facilities. Facility that can meet the minimum standard.
“So make sure that the baseline is set. If you set a bad foundation, you are going to have a bad process but when the foundation is good, facilities are okay for the people to see and accept to invest in, that’s when we will be in business”, Umoh said.
The Commissioner, who expressed delight at the processes already begun by the AKSHIA, said that health insurance programme was one the focal areas hope to provide better financial access to healthcare for residents of the state.
According to him, the health insurance scheme is new in Nigeria unlike in other climes, Akwa Ibom would leverage on experiences and the challenges encountered by some states in the country that earlier started the program, given the quality of the health professionals involved in the State.
