The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) says it has entered into partnerships with some leading drug manufacturing companies including Roche and Pfizer to guarantee quality service delivery for enrollees.

Dr Victor Ezeaku, Head of Quality Assurance, Enugu State office of NHIA disclosed this on Friday in Enugu at a stakeholders’ sensitisation meeting/enrollee forum.

The forum with the theme “Universal Health Coverage: Enhancing Efficient Utilisation And Enrollee Satisfaction and Access to Qualify Healthcare Services” was organised by the Enugu state office of NHIA.

Ezeaku, who spoke on “building enrollees confidence and satisfaction” said partnership was part of new innovations embarked by the NHIA under Prof. Mohammed Sambo Director General of the authority.

“Other innovations include e-NHIS, financing; this is arrived at ending the out of stock syndrome by health care providers, ” he said.

Ezeaku said that with the amended  NHIA Act of 2022, the authority had assumed the position of regulator, implementor, investor and insurer.

He said to ensure quality assurance by service providers, the Enugu State office through the enforcement department embarked on quality assurance visits to some service providers.

“We also carry out routine spot visits; training of healthcare facilitators and encouraging healthcare facilitators to shift from cure to prevention, ” he said.

Speaking on the comparison between the 2004 and 2022 NHIA Act, Mr Smart Mark, Head of Programme department, Enugu State Office, said the new Act changed the nomenclature from NHIS to NHIA.

“While the 2004 Act made it voluntary for enrollment, the new 2022 Act has made it mandatory for all Nigerians to enroll into the scheme.

He said that one of the highlights of the new Act was the provision of Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, adding that this was meant for the vulnerable group.

“This is aimed at achieving Universal Health Coverage in 2030 in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ” he said.

He said that under the scheme, state governments were directed by the Federal Government to establish State Insurance Agency.

Also speaking, Abani Uchenna of enrollment department said that the authority had added extra two dependents from the original family of six.

According to her enrollees were expected to pay N15,000 annually for the additional dependents.