Ogona Anita
Rivers State Contributory Health Protection Programme (RIVCHPP) has come up with far-reaching decisions geared towards improving the services the agency provides for Rivers residents, even as it has come up with processes to make health facilities providing services for its enrollees to become more accountable.
The state health insurance agency took the far-reaching decisions during its 2nd quarter review meeting, which was held in the office of the agency in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, 14th July, 2026.
Henceforth, the finance department of the agency is to come up with a template for administering on facilities to track how funds from the agency to such facilities are expended.
Officials from the agency who now go on Quality Assessment visits to facilities must ensure that they , in addition to their findings about operations of such facilities, also ensure that they interface with enrollees and residents around the facilities to hear from the consumers how well or otherwise the services they access from the providers are.
During the review meeting, the state social health insurance agency RIVCHPP resolved that accredited facilities should reach out to prospective enrollees, see to it that such persons are enrolled and assigned to their facilities, saying that it will no longer be business as usual where the agency sources for enrollees and assigns to facilities.
Also, in the course of the review meeting, it was resolved that before any data is churned out and sent out, the relevant departments and units must double check to see to the synchronisation of such data.
The review meeting came up with a decision to penalise and possibly delist health facilities that are lagging behind in giving the promised quality healthcare services to its enrollees.
In the course of the meeting, it was announced that RIVCHPP has surpassed its target number of 84,054 persons under the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF).
But the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of RIVCHPP, Dr. Vetty Agala said that though the agency has reached and exceeded the number given to the state by National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), the agency continues to enrol more and more Rivers residents into its premium paying packages , known as Rivcare.
Dr. Agala also said that those who are truly vulnerable can still be considered for enrolment, without payment, to align with Governor Siminialayi Fubara’s mantra of #Health4AllRivers.
In the meeting, the ICT department was asked to clean up unverified data, even as the agency said it would intentionally do more to see to it that the work processes and the workforce are truly digitalised.
Idanye Oruigoni
Head, Information/Public Relations Unit,
RIVCHPP.
14 – 07 – 2026.
