Arogya Times
The Health Insurance Board (HIB) has introduced a digital bulk enrolment and renewal service to help local and provincial governments enrol citizens in the national health insurance programme. Through the Board’s online portal, local and provincial governments can now use dedicated institutional dashboards to register citizens collectively and renew their health insurance coverage.
The service was initially launched on Tuesday, with Gokarneshwor Municipality in Kathmandu and Kapilvastu Municipality in Kapilvastu district receiving institutional user access. The two municipalities can now directly enrol their residents, targeted communities and employees in the health insurance programme through the online system.
According to Bikesh Mall, information officer at the Health Insurance Board, various local governments and provincial authorities have introduced policies to provide health insurance coverage to economically disadvantaged groups, Dalits, government employees and other residents within their jurisdictions. However, enrolling large numbers of people under these initiatives previously involved lengthy administrative procedures.
Mall said the traditional process required collecting citizens’ details through ward-level registration assistants, submitting paper documents to district offices, obtaining payment vouchers and depositing the required amounts at banks.
With the introduction of the new digital system, local governments no longer need to carry physical documents between offices or go through these time-consuming procedures, he added.
Under the new arrangement, municipalities can collect information about eligible citizens and enter their details directly into the Board’s online portal. Once the information is submitted, the system automatically generates digital health insurance cards, making the enrolment and renewal process more convenient and efficient.
Arogya Times
