The House of Representatives’ Public Accounts Committee has instructed the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife, to provide a detailed list of Health Maintenance Organisations that owe the Federal Government N49m from 2021 to 2025. This decision came during the committee’s examination of the Auditor General’s 2021 report, which highlighted the hospital’s challenges in recovering outstanding debts.
The report revealed an unrecovered debt of N32m from 33 HMOs as of December 31, 2020. Despite these debts, the hospital continued to offer services to these organisations, many of which had significant arrears.
During the hearing, the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Professor John Okeniyi, discussed the difficulties faced in recovering debts from HMOs. Okeniyi expressed concerns about the limited coverage of Nigerians by the National Health Insurance Authority, leading many patients to pay out of pocket. He also mentioned issues with HMOs responsible for covering Obafemi Awolowo University students’ healthcare expenses.
To address the challenges, the hospital established a task force to recover debts, which has successfully retrieved N15.97m out of the N32 million identified in the 2021 report. In response to inquiries about the total indebtedness of HMOs to the Federal Government, Okeniyi confirmed a total debt of N49m by 2025.
The committee unanimously directed the hospital to provide a transparent list of HMOs and their respective outstanding amounts.