Occurrence of Medical Cases and Utilisation among Enrollees of Private Health Insurance Programme in Kaduna, Nigeria

Aims: This study examines the occurrence of various medical cases presented by enrollees that have subscribed to access healthcare from a network of healthcare providers (HCPs) managed by a Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO) under its Private Health Insurance Programme (PHIP).

Study Design: A descriptive cross-sectional design was employed.

Methodology: Secondary data from collected or submitted medical encounters in form of bills of registered enrollees (principals and their dependants) who have visited and received treatment from their chosen healthcare providers in Kaduna State between the month of January and December 2019 were purposively compiled and analysed. Cases were classified using the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Operational Guideline. Frequency tables, charts, percentages and Chi-Square analysis were used with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 22 at P=.05 level of significance.

Results: A total of 11,156 medical cases were recorded after attrition, 9,525 (85.38%) primary cases and 1,632 (14.62%) secondary cases. Malaria (41.23%) and Respiratory Tract Infection (11.98%) led the primary case table while Hypertension (3.83%) Urology related cases (2.49%) and Diabetes (0.79%) were among the leading secondary cases. Female enrollees had slightly more cases and therefore higher tendencies to seek medical treatment than their male counterpart even though there was no significant relation between gender and type of case.

Conclusion: The study concludes that the awareness and utilization of healthcare services are gradually growing among enrollees under the Private Health Insurance Programme (PHIP). In ensuring that there is an improvement in the health sector of Nigeria and achieving universal health coverage, focus should be on the primary healthcare services with high consideration for research, proper data management and periodic sharing of trends, observations and outcome of researches with the growing health community.