PSP-One Hosts Advocacy Event in Abuja, Nigeria
Over 200 professionals, including private healthcare providers and representatives from the Nigerian Ministry of Health, USAID, and various health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), attended the Abt Associates-led Private Sector Partnerships One (PSP-One) project advocacy event on February 6, 2008 in Abuja, Nigeria. The one-day conference, entitled “Empowering Private Providers for Better Health in Nigeria,” brought together stakeholders to discuss current trends and future directions for private healthcare in Nigeria.
The event featured findings from the private health provider baseline survey conducted in May 2007. Two hundred and sixty private providers enrolled in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Lagos, Kano, and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were interviewed. The study found that in general, providers had a curative-based approach to treatment, rather than a “wellness” or preventative-services approach, which would allow them to be more profitable and better maintain the health of their patients. The majority of providers (51%) did not know whether the health maintenance organization (HMO) plans under which they practiced covered family planning counseling services or contraceptive products in their capitated rates.
In order to help providers understand how to operate and be profitable under a capitated health insurance scheme, whereby providers receive a fixed monthly stipend per patient to cover all or most services, PSP-One developed the Managed Care and Family Wellness (MCFW) Course. The course also includes technical updates in family planning, malaria, routine immunization and nutrition to better enable providers to develop wellness programs. To date, PSP-One, in partnership with seven Nigerian HMOs accredited by the NHIS, has trained over 400 private providers in 180 health facilities. Many of these have already implemented successful wellness programs.
PSP-One is also working with eight commercial banks and five microfinance institutions to develop loan products specific to the health sector. The Access to Finance course developed by PSP-One offers financial management training to private providers to improve their management skills and increase their chances of obtaining loans to expand their businesses. This program is also designed to address research findings that showed the vast majority of practices report being profitable, but have made little use of financing.
The event also included a facilitated panel discussion, “How should the private and public sectors work together to deliver quality health care?” Representatives from the Nigerian Ministry of Health, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council, the Society for Family Health, and Total Health Trust discussed the importance of the private health sector in the NHIS implementation; the challenge of ensuring product and service quality; licensing and monitoring of private providers and facilities; and creating opportunities for continuing medical education. Although the panelists came from very diverse perspectives, there was a broad consensus that the government and the private sector must work together to establish relationships of trust and respect to improve the quality and the quantity of health care being delivered by the private sector in Nigeria.
For copies of the presentations given at this event or for more information about PSP-One Nigeria please email: Sarah Ritterhoff, PSP-One
