Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
In order to improve health insurance in Nigeria, a leading underwriting firm in the country, AXA Mansard Health, has launched OneHealth Medical Centre.
A statement from the company disclosed that the facility would support its aspiration of delivering quality and affordable healthcare to Nigerians.
The firm stated that OneHealth Medical Centre was established to reduce the health-related financial burden, especially for low- and middle-class individuals, as the facility will help to incentivise healthcare providers to offer high-quality care, as they will be reimbursed for their services.
AXA Mansard further disclosed that it funded OneHealth Medical Centre to further uphold its HMO commitments.
Speaking at the new facility, the chief executive of AXA Africa Health, Mr Khaled El Shaarany, said that the insurance company invested $26 million to build OneHealth, its first of four facilities, targeted to be completed before the end of the next two years, to become the largest healthcare network in the country.
Shaarany also described the newly inaugurated medical centre as a one-stop healthcare solution, with two operating theatres and several consultation rooms that provide most of your healthcare needs, such as great cardiologists, laboratories and a pharmacy.
Speaking on the affordability of the Insurance premiums, he said that with AXA as the paying Partner, the medical centre could provide insurance that covers the hospital’s expenses and keeps the cost completely affordable for their customers.
The AXA Country Manager and Medical Director, OneHealth, Misbah Oleolo, in his opening speech, expressed delight in the launch, however, he noted that real satisfaction comes when the services have been delivered successfully.
“We hope to get positive feedback from our customers that the service meets their needs, until then, it is better to be economical with our emotions,” he said.
Speaking on their Awareness plan, Oleolo said that the AXA Health team led by AXA Mansard will first increase expansion in areas with very high Insurance penetration and eventually organically recruit more people, from across the nation.
“We guarantee high-quality healthcare solutions that will be accessible to a lot of people as we begin to increase our geographical footprints,” he said.
Oleolo said that the AXA OneHealth medical facility has carefully recruited and trained staff to deliver a technology-driven solution through their in-house electronic medical records backed with telemedicine as part of its digital health offering.
According to him, the initiative promotes collaboration as it engages medical personnel who would supervise the activities, in a way that would create a win-win situation for every party involved.
Oleolo also noted that the AXA health centre has put in place measures to combat Insurance fraud with an Insurance officer who would check the eligibility, identity and entitlement of a policy before claims fulfilment, as well as officers who would work from the AXA Mansard side to assist with provider liaison with the insurance arm and call centres to facilitate faster cyber security processes.
The Chief Executive Officer of AXA Mansard Health, Mr Tope Adeniyi, expressed his delight in stressing that the launch would tackle the issue of long waiting time, misdiagnosis, mal-diagnosis etc.
“We are very happy to see AXA powering OneHealth to deliver great services to our customers,” Mr Adeniyi said.
According to him, to ensure that Nigeria meets the universal health coverage target, he said that AXA Mansard Health is in a very strategic position, offering solutions on the demand and supply side of the coverage.
He stressed that medical innovation is the second link to achieving universal health care. “Because universal health coverage is to give equitable access to health care to all Nigerians, we, on the demand (Health Insurance) side, are pushing to get Hundreds of Millions of Nigerians covered while floating on the supply side to ensure there are wellness, clinic and medical centres to be able to care for the millions of Nigerians,” Adeniyi said.
The President of the Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN), Ms Ibironke Sodeinde, who brought a goodwill message from the Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said that the governor would revamp and rejuvenate the health sector to facilitate effective service delivery.
