At AGM, HMO restates commitment to UHC services

A health maintenance organization (HMO) – Ultimate Health Management Services has reiterated its commitment to ensuring that Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is accessible by Nigerians across the country. It also pledged to take the advocacy to the nooks and crannies of the country to ensure that Nigerians benefit from HM0.

Chairman, HMO, Mrs. Angela Ayala, stated this in Abuja, Thursday, at the 2023 Ultimate Health Management Services Annual General Meeting. She added that there was no need for Nigerians to be sick because they have no money to access medical attention,

She said: “In the public sector, it is easier because they deduct from your salary but for the private sector, we have begun to engage specific associations by bringing them on board, letting them know that the future is uncertain because health challenges can happen anytime.

“We are doing very well as one of the leading HMOs in Nigeria and we are going beyond Nigeria. So, we are taking it beyond what it is; we are reaching out to all the nooks and crannies of Nigerian, and we are meeting with the relevant stakeholders to bring everybody on board, including students, professional workers and business people as our target.”

In his remarks, Managing Director, Ultimate Health Management Services, Mr. Lekan Ewenla, explained that there are three levels of healthcare access across the world, which are the primary healthcare facilities, secondary and tertiary.

He noted that all vulnerable citizens in Nigeria are expected to be enrolled into the basic HMO in their states, which will give them opportunity of assessing and utilizing healthcare that has been established by the states government.

He noted that there are plans to develop a very robust ICT platform to mirror the operations of health maintenance organizations and healthcare providers to have a general public database in line with the United Nations policy.

Ewenla said: “About 80 per cent of what takes people to the hospital is high sugar level. So, what the federal government has done in the last five years was to address healthcare from the perspective of demand and supply, such that now, they have began to deploy on a yearly basis through the National Primary Health categorization for states to refurbish the healthcare centres.

“This health insurance scheme is going to be driven on the platform of different HMOs to drive the process, health insurance programs, making it mandatory directive from the United Nations to other nations that are dragging the Sustainable Development Goals that deal with ensuring that all countries of the world provide basic health care services for their people, for them to be well.”