No law in place for NIB to register for NHI

Mon, Feb 8th 2016, 12:14 AM

Nearly three weeks after the government commenced registration for National Health Insurance (NHI), National Insurance Board (NIB) Senior Deputy Director Cecile Bethel indicated that the registration component of the universal healthcare scheme cannot ensue until NHI legislation is passed to allow NIB to share information about its registrants with the NHI Secretariat.

While some observers, including the media, have raised this point, this is the first time an official involved in the process has confirmed this. Bethel said 10,000 people have registered with NIB since it ramped up its smart card registration initiative several weeks ago, but acknowledged that those people should not be considered NHI registrants at this stage.

"Bear in mind that the card that we are talking about is the National Insurance Board's registration or identification card," she said. "Anyone who is registered with NIB, the card provides a gateway to NHI because it is our understanding that this card is what is going to allow you access to the National Health Insurance program."

Asked whether data on those NIB registrants was being shared with the NHI Secretariat, Bethel said, "No. This is the NIB registration and we have to continue to stress that. This is currently the NIB's registration program. Now, later on when the NHI legislation is passed, I am sure there is going to be some agreement about data sharing, etc. I imagine at that point then there will be an agreement on how the data should be used."

In December, Prime Minister Perry Christie said the first three months of NHI would involve registration and then enrollment.

Registration for NHI began on January 18, according to the government. The scheme will be rolled out in five stages starting with access to primary healthcare services in April, officials have said. In the weeks leading up to the start of 2016, there was widespread uncertainty on the details of the scheme, including how it would be implemented.

In response, the government said NIB will spearhead the registration phase. The smart card is expected to be used for the scheme. Bethel indicated that once NHI legislation is passed NIB registrants could then become registrants of NHI.

"One of the things we always say to people, and we are not getting as many as we'd like, [but] one of the things we always ask our registrants to do is to ensure that they provide us with an email address," Bethel said.

"What that email address does is it gives us an opportunity to provide them with a pin number, a personal identification number. They use that pin number to register on our registrant self-service system because the registrant self-service system is the system that is going to be the actual portal that will allow them, and sign them up for National Health Insurance."

While The Nassau Guardian has reported on the NHI Bill, the government has not yet formally released the bill for consultation as it committed to doing two weeks ago.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian

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