BY CLEMIA NEELY
Journal Staff Writer
Physicians who are members of the newly formed National Health Insurance Providers Association (NHIPA) want the government to expedite the registration of their representative body, which was formed so that they can equally participate in decisions regarding future modifications to the National Health Insurance Plan’s health care delivery. They claim that both their NHI patients and their businesses may suffer from those developments.
NHIPA President Denotrah Archer-Cartwright said that their association’s registration is taking an exceptionally long time. “We want to choose our representation and have the NHIPA officially recognize us as that body responsible for future consultations and negotiations,” she states. “We want to foster a partnership with the NHI instead of a top-down approach that is weakening the relationship between the physicians and the NHI.”
According to President Archer-Cartwright, registration is crucial because some contentious NHI policy changes are set to go into effect in January. Among their worries are inconsistent payments to physicians for the care they give NHI patients. The most recent payment they reportedly received was for the end of October.
“It’s unfortunate that we don’t know when we will be paid, how much we will be paid. We’re running our clinics and we have employees, we have rent to pay, we have utilities to pay. All of these things have gone up,” she said. “We’ve never received any additional funds in the past seven years, but yet, we continue to see our patients every day, we continue to provide the access to care. We need to have this inconsistency and frequency addressed.”
She also objected to a proposed modification that would make it necessary for physicians to pay NHI in order to take part in that program. She shared, “They’re requesting that we pay service fees for our facilities being apart. Now we are providing the infrastructure and the facilities, so why would we be paying the NHI to have our facilities involved in the program? Why would we be paying them to have our physicians provide care? And why would we be paying them to use the electronic medical system that they prescribed to us and made mandatory? Why would we be paying for that monthly when this is a tool that they said they provided to make the efficiency of care easier for us?”, she asked. “It’s only made things so much more difficult, so we really need them to think about that and look at that and take the physicians seriously when we say that these things are actually becoming obstacles to care.”
Trade Union Congress President Obie Ferguson said that his umbrella organization will intervene to safeguard the businesses of all doctors in the nation. “We are committed to fight for those doctors who have their clinics, and efforts have been made to wipe them out,” he said. “The registrars at the Ministry of Labor are introducing some things that I find almost offensive. Why would it take three months, four months, six months to register a union?” he asked. “We can go to Parliament and pass a law in less than 24 hours. But when it comes to Bahamians and the workers of this country, we have difficulty. So, we will do what we have to do to make sure these doctors be recognized. We’re not ruling on anything. We can’t because it defeats the very purpose of the congress.”
In response to the concerns raised by NHI providers, Minister of Health and Wellness Dr. Michael Darville said in a statement that although there have been delays, providers are still receiving payments. In fact, Dr. Darville claimed that the most recent payment was made last week. He also stated that payments for November are currently outstanding and that the relevant agencies are working hard to continue regularizing payments to NHI vendors, including providers.
Regarding the meeting with the recently established NHI Provider Association, Dr. Darville asserts that the association has received an invitation to meet with the Ministry and NHI authority, but he claimed the association has not responded in writing.
