The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE National Health Insurance Act (NHIA) came into force yesterday, providing Prime Minister Perry Christie with the power to establish the NHI Authority, the NHI Secretariat announced.

This allows staff to be hired to run the authority and it allows contracts to be executed with primary care providers.

“The establishment of the NHIA highlights the continued commitment to the Bahamian people to make modern, affordable and accessible health care services a reality,” Dr Delon Brennen, NHI project manager, said in a press release yesterday.

“Moreover, the legal establishment of the body that will usher in the provision of NHI Bahamas will move our country closer to achieving universal health coverage.”

The press statement said the NHIA will be extending job offers to Bahamians after completing a recruitment process over the past few months.

Offers are being prepared for an immediate start, involving customer services representatives, finance officers, information technology staff, facilities management, benefits management and quality management.

Enrollment in NHI is expected to begin later this month.

The Tribune understands that although no official press statement has been released, the Christie administration has already selected a public insurer that is preparing for the launch of NHI.

On Wednesday, the NHI Secretariat announced that more than 60 doctors have registered as primary care providers so far.

Dr Duane Sands, Free National Movement (FNM) candidate for Elizabeth, said yesterday that given the number of doctors in the country, this didn’t seem like an enthusiastic buy-in, “particularly given the fact that this has been the most advertised, reported, discussed programme in healthcare in the recent history of the Bahamas”.

As for doctors who have registered as providers, he asked: “What did they sign up for? Most of us have no idea what they signed up for because it remains a state secret. It speaks to a level of lack of transparency that makes it difficult to make decisions to plan, to budget, to staff, to gear up for a programme you don’t know much about.”

The government has not yet finalised its reimbursement scheme with doctors, The Tribune understands.

Dr Sands, however, claimed yesterday that the government has been entering into “agreements of understanding” with individual doctors.

“Reimbursement talks have taken a divide and conquer strategy,” he said. “They’re one-on-one negotiations for the most part. Individual doctors are signing on one-by-one. There is no widely circulated document available for perusal by the Medical Association. It’s a case where you speak to one, they cut a deal; speak to another, they cut a deal. Deals are being cut all around right now.”

Earlier this week, Minister of Health Dr Perry Gomez said portions of the government’s NHI primary care services could be “omitted” before the plan is rolled out as the Christie administration looks to finalise critical aspects of the scheme prior to the general election.

The government has missed several target dates for NHI. The primary care phase was initially supposed to be launched in April last year.

However that date was later pushed back to January, 2017. But that proposed January date was missed and Mr Christie later said the plan would be launched in the first week of April.