Evaluation of Bayelsa Health Insurance Scheme (BHIS) and Healthcare Delivery in Bayelsa State, Nigeria (2017-2022)

This study examined the Bayelsa Health Insurance Scheme and Healthcare Delivery in Bayelsa State from 2017 – 2022. This was achieved through (i) investigating the level of enrollees’ accessibility to healthcare under BHIS; (ii) ascertaining the quality of healthcare provided to enrollees under BHIS; (iii) examining how satisfied the enrollees are with healthcare under BHIS; and (iv) assessing the effectiveness of the referral system under BHIS. The study was theoretically anchored on the Healthcare Service Utilization Model and Systems Theory. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study. The study revealed that the accessibility level for good healthcare is moderate; the quality of care was also revealed to be on the average, the level of enrollees’ satisfaction under BHIS was revealed to be low and the referral system under BHIS was revealed to be moderately effective. It is hereby concluded that BHIS performance is not bad, but needs serious improvement. The study therefore recommends among others, to look at accessibility in terms of the availability of requisite drugs, medical personnel and time frame within which the enrollees are attended; measure quality of care provided under BHIS against World Health Organization (WHO) standard; orientate service providers that enrollees are not charity seeking people but people who provided security for eventuality; and to improve the referral system to reduce the delay caused by technological issues and administrative procedures of getting code.