Insurance fund registers retirees

ASHERY MKAMA

THE National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) has registered 27,056 retirees leading to 51,598 beneficiaries as of December 2015. NHIF Operations Director Mr Eugen Mikongoti said another success of the fund is extension of ...

coverage of 27 per cent of the country’s population partnering with such pension funds as PSPF, PPF and GEPF, and CRDB Bank and UTT in the enrolment of members.

He made these remarks on the Fund’s experiences in the provision of health services to beneficiaries at a workshop organised for retirees in Dar es Salaam yesterday. He said despite various successes attained, there are some challenges which still hinder the fund from meeting its objectives.

He told the retirees that lack of formal arrangement at facility level to access to services to the elderly and low awareness with regard to benefits are some of the major challenges.

Other challenges are lack of price regulation mechanism which causes problems during negotiations with healthcare providers and fraudulent practices such as forged patient signature and ghost patients, just to mention a few. Mr Mikongoti said NHIF plans to establish a regulatory authority for health services.

NHIF also will conduct an awareness campaign on retiree’s packages, enhancement of benefits, health campaign promotion and the use of ICT in curbing fraud practices.

Former NHIF boss, Mr Emmanuel Humba, said the major aim to establish the Fund was to improve the health status of the population.

The Deputy Chief Executive Officer, President’s Delivery Unit, Mr Peniel Lyimo, said that he has benefited from NHIF’s health services and urged the Ministry of Health to hasten the process of procuring medical equipment for retirees.