Controller and Auditor General (CAG), Prof. Mussa Assad.
The recently released report by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) exposed the rot at the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), which has caused various companies to reject claims worth Sh1.86 billion.
The audit report for the financial year 2016/17 also unveiled that Sh241.97 million billed to the National Health Insurance Funds (NHIF) for medicines did not reach the patients.
“During the year under review, I noted that bills amounting to Sh1.86 billion were rejected by insurance companies. Some hospital staff was involved in such fraudulent bills,” reads part of the report.
The CAG, Prof Mussa Asaad, said in his report that their findings raise questions over the billing process and fraudulent practices, which according to him, were due to weaknesses in monitoring, adding that this will leave many hospitals with huge losses.
The CAG advised that the MNH should investigate the rejected bills with a view to finding out the causes of their rejection and take appropriate measures. “The MNH should review the billing process to identify the gaps that lead to fraudulent billing,” reads the report. However, the CAG audit report revealed that there was a significant increase in debt collection.
In the report, the CAG said he noted a significant increase in account receivables by 45 percent, which amounted to Sh30.8 billion as compared to previous year’s balance of Sh17 billion.
“Increase in trade debtors indicates that significant sum of revenue is tied up in debtors imposing cash flow constraints to the hospital,” reads the CAG report.
Furthermore, the report establishes that the increase may be attributed to inadequate efforts by the hospital in collecting debts as there are no shreds of evidence of deliberate measures taken by management to ensure robust collections of the outstanding receivables.
The CAG recommends that the hospital should design and employ rigorous efforts to recover the amounts.
The Citizen
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