PHIMC signs contract with BISP, NADRA

The Punjab Health Initiative Management Company (PHIMC) signed a contract with the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and NADRA for expansion of pro-poor health insurance scheme to remaining 32 districts of the Punjab.
Under the contract, the BISP will provide data of poor people from the Punjab who are earning less than $2/Rs 200 per day. The NADRA will verify the national identity cards and thumb impressions of these beneficiaries to ensure transparency. The verification process will also enable the PHIMC to provide health benefits to deserving people of the province.
As per contract, the NADRA will also provide a Centralized Management Information System for real-time monitoring of the programme. In the signing ceremony, Director General NADRA Zulifqar Ali and CEO PHIMC Dr Saira Siddique represented their organizations and signed the contract, a spokesperson of the company, said here on Thursday.
The PHIMC mandated for execution of the Prime Minister's National Health Insurance Programme (PMNHP) in the Punjab province is already operating in the four target districts of the Punjab - Rahim Yar Khan, Khanewal, Narowal and Sargodha. Under the programme, a total of 7.9 million people in the target districts are getting quality health services. Following the directions by the Chief Minister of the Punjab, the PHIMC intends to expand its mandate to the remaining 32 districts of the Punjab so that all eligible poor people can be facilitated through the scheme.
The programme was launched by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last year in October in District Rahim Yar Khan. The main objective of the PMNHP programme is to improve access of the poor population to good quality medical services, through a micro health insurance scheme. For the province of Punjab, the PHIMC will implement the programme.
Both public and private healthcare facilities having ten plus (10+) beds and provisionally licensed by Punjab Healthcare Commission are entitled for empanelment in the scheme. After enrolment in the scheme, the beneficiary will be eligible to go to any empanelled hospital.
An amount of Rs 1.5 billion has been allocated for the Health Insurance Initiative in the current budget for the PHIMC. For the new districts, the Punjab government intends to provide an additional Rs 12 billion for implementation of the programme.
A PHIMC spokesperson said that the company was working at a very fast pace to implement the health insurance scheme in remaining districts of the Punjab to provide high quality medical facilities to the poor. The success in four districts is remarkable while a follow-up survey also hints that a higher rate of satisfaction, 96 percent, among the beneficiaries.