And much of the public misconception came about because not everyone knows how these NHI contracts work. One of the issues that NHI had was this media house describing the contracts as "lucrative" Dr. Figueroa explained how they work:
Dr. Ramon Figueroa, General Manager - NHI
"I think one of the things that came up and we've been accused of offering lucrative contracts, I have a copy of the contract that we can share. It's a basic standard contract that states which company we're contracting with, when does it start, when is the finish of the contract, what are the conditions, and should we choose to terminate the contract? Basic standard contract. And at the end, there's a list of what, in the case of lab, what lab services we cover. And we have a list of prices. Those prices are standard across all lab providers. So that's a negotiation. We tell them, this is what we think. You agree or you don't agree. Can you provide those services or can you not provide those services? So once they agree to that, then we hold them to that contract. There is, it's difficult to say, I don't know who came up with that, that the contract is a lucrative contract because it doesn't, it depends. When you have been awarded that contract, your income is dependent on a clinic sending referrals to that particular lab. So let's say we have a clinic that's a registered NHI provider in Belmopan. They see clients, they see members that are registered with them. They go to a doctor, the doctor examines them. They need a lab test. They issue a referral for that lab test. The patient has a choice to go to any of the other labs. So at the end of the day, the income for that particular lab is dependent on what?"
"Whether they get referrals, two whether the patients decides that they want to go there. So you can't predict what the income is for that particular lab, it's a competitive environment they can go to other labs."
Dr. Figueroa explained that when it comes to labs, the payment is a little different and it is by no means a get rich quick scheme for those in the medical field:
Dr. Ramon Figueroa, General Manager - NHI
"It's based on the clinics issuing referrals and the patient deciding to go to that particular lab."
Reporter
"Do NHI Providers get paid on each registered person in that area regardless of whether they access the services or not within the given timeframe?"
Dr. Ramon Figueroa, General Manager - NHI
"The clinics yes but you have to understand that's a mode and a method, we use a capitation payment it's an acceptable means of payment which is what you do is you register, people choose to come to your clinic and register and we calculate a per member per month payment and what that does it distributes the risk across a whole population so the basic principle is some people will come and some people will come and use the services quite a bit and some others won't use so it, the risk is spread across the population. It's used in a lot of other countries in terms of because what capitation does it does not incentivize the over consultation because if you pay by consultation, the general tendency by some physician is I will ask you to come on a regular basis and so we pay you and we increase the income. In this mode of payment it controls that kind of abuse in the system."
