NHI to sue delinquents

The original article can be found in: BVI News Online

Persons who constantly fail to make payments under the impending National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme will be hauled before the courts, according to Roy Barry – Deputy Social Security Director in charge of the NHI.

Under the proposed scheme, each person will be charged 7.5% of their insurable salary. Half of that percentage will be paid by the employee and the other half (3.75%) by the employer.

No date is yet set for the implementation of the already delayed NHI, but Barry saw it fit to give an early warning to likely delinquents.

“We will actively pursue the (delinquent) employers and if we have to take them to court; that we will do,” he said, adding: “We (at NHI) are going to have a department that is responsible for policing these persons.”

Barry, during the ‘Speak Your Mind’ television programme on the weekend, also disclosed that persons will be denied access to NHI benefits once their “contributions are not submitted in a timely manner after a certain period”.

He recommended that employees keep their pay slips and make checks at the NHI office to ascertain whether the amounts deducted from their salaries are being paid over.

“They (the employees) have that right to check with us to make sure that the contributions are paid,” declared the NHI boss.

“They can submit their pay slips which they do for Social Security to prove this money was deducted and then we will police the employers.”

Access cards

Barry said each NHI contributor will be given a swipe card which will be used to verify their identity in “real time”.

Whenever each card is swiped, it will indicate whether one’s account is up-to-date.

“When you seek to access care and your card is swiped, automatically it would say whether or not you qualify for care based on the national insurance payment,” Barry explained. “In the event that your contributions are not up-to-date, then it would state that you can’t access care with National Health Insurance.”

If the swipe cards are refused by the technical NHI system while one tries to access care, persons will have to seek alternative means of paying for immediate healthcare access.

“You can pay for the care up-front and then come back to the National Health Insurance office, and we will rectify it for you,” Barry advised.

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