The Rivers State Contributory Health Protection Programme (RIVCHPP) has announced a series of reforms aimed at strengthening accountability among healthcare providers, improving service delivery, and accelerating the digitalisation of its operations.
The resolutions were reached during the agency’s second-quarter review meeting held in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.
As part of the new measures, RIVCHPP directed its Finance Department to develop a monitoring template that will enable the agency to track how funds disbursed to accredited health facilities are utilised.
The agency also mandated officials conducting quality assessment visits to engage directly with enrollees and residents in host communities to obtain first-hand feedback on the quality of healthcare services provided by accredited facilities.
In another major policy shift, RIVCHPP resolved that accredited healthcare providers should take a more active role in enrolling prospective beneficiaries and ensuring they are registered under their facilities, ending the previous practice where the agency solely sourced and assigned enrollees.
The agency further stressed the need for improved data integrity, directing relevant departments and units to verify and synchronise information before releasing official data.
RIVCHPP also warned that healthcare facilities failing to meet agreed service standards could face sanctions, including possible delisting from the scheme.
During the meeting, the agency announced that it had exceeded its Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) enrolment target of 84,054 beneficiaries.
Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of RIVCHPP, Dr. Vetty Agala, said the agency would continue expanding enrolment through its premium-paying RivCare health insurance package despite surpassing the target set by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
He added that genuinely vulnerable residents would continue to receive free enrolment in line with Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s #Health4AllRivers initiative.
The ICT Department was also directed to clean up unverified records as part of efforts to fully digitize the agency’s workforce and operational processes.
