The Inter Faith based medical Bureau coalition in Uganda wants the National Insurance scheme bill 2019 to have a penalty on unreasonable delays in processing and payment of claims to health care provider.
The coalition of the Faith Based Medical Bureau in Uganda comprised of the Uganda protestant Medical Bureau, Uganda Muslim medical Bureau, the Uganda orthodox medical Bureau and Uganda catholic medical Bureau, made the proposal while presenting their views on the proposed National Insurance scheme bill 2019 being scrutinized by the parliamentary health committee chaired Bukuya county legislator Dr.Micheal Bukenya.
The Executive secretary of the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau Dr.Sam Orach says that while it is good that a health provider can lodge a complaint to the tribunal regarding delayed payment of claims, there should be consideration of penalty imposed on the scheme for the delayed payment beyond stipulated period provided in the law.
He justified that the delay and late payment shall cripple and compromise the timeliness and quality of service provision.
Orach also asked the committee to ensure that the law clarifies on who qualifies to benefit as a spouse of the contributor aware of the existence of polygamous marriages in Uganda which also reorganized by law.
They also recommend that health facilities which are not gazetted and registered by Uganda medical and Dental practitioner’s council are not accredited to ensure quality service delivery.
The group also submitted that the automatic qualification of all government health facilities as health care service providers under the scheme without being subjected to accreditation process is likely to be risky and contradict the primary objective of this law.