The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has warned that it will sanction Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) under the FCT Health Insurance Scheme (FHIS) that fail to promptly remit payments to healthcare providers.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, 29 July 2025, in Abuja, Mr Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Public Communications and Social Media, emphasised that the FHIS is a social health insurance programme designed to provide financial protection and access to quality, affordable, and equitable healthcare for all FCT residents.
He noted that FCTA and Area Council staff, as well as vulnerable individuals and pregnant women, are enrolled free of charge, while others can join by paying an annual premium of N22,500.
Olayinka revealed that FCT Minister Nyesom Wike approved the payment of approximately N4 billion in outstanding capitation and fee-for-service dues from 2022 to 2024, settled between 2024 and 2025, to enhance the quality of healthcare services for FHIS enrollees.
The FHIS benefit package includes the Basic Minimum Package of Health Care Services (BMPHS), covering promotive, preventive, curative, and some rehabilitative care.
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Additional services include primary preventive care, screening, emergency services, and secondary care such as dental, mental, eye, ear, nose, and throat care, physiotherapy, surgeries, laboratory tests, and radiological investigations like ultrasound scans and X-rays.
However, Olayinka highlighted complaints from some healthcare providers about non-remitted payments by certain HMOs, which the HMOs attributed to missing bank details of the affected hospitals.
“This excuse is not acceptable to the FCT Administration government,” he stated. He warned that the FCTA would closely monitor HMOs’ compliance with prompt payment remittance and healthcare providers’ commitment to FHIS enrollees, with sanctions for any defaulters.
Reflecting on the FHIS’s progress over the past year, Olayinka noted achievements including the clearance of outstanding capitation and fee-for-service payments from 2022 to 2024, improved timeliness in payments to HMOs, an upward review of capitation rates for healthcare providers, and free enrolment for vulnerable groups, particularly pregnant women, children under five, and indigent residents.
Additionally, accreditation visits to 100 Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities have been conducted to expand FHIS service provision and improve community healthcare access.
Olayinka added that pregnant women enrolled through the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) PHCs across the FCT’s six area councils will continue to benefit from free health education, medical consultations, treatments, routine antenatal drugs, laboratory investigations, and delivery.
“Referral services for secondary care, including caesarean sections, blood transfusions, and treatment for obstetric complications like eclampsia, are provided at no cost in all 14 FCT General Hospitals through the BHCPF,” he said.