The National Health Fund (NHF) is set to expand its Individual Benefits Programme for its thousands of beneficiaries across the island.

The announcement was made by Everton Anderson, CEO at the National Health Fund during a press conference earlier today (January 17) at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.

In providing continued support to the health sector in Jamaica for the treatment and control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) the NHF will be increasing the benefits on its NHFCard programme.

Eight conditions on the NHFCard will see increases in subsidies. Also, new drugs will be added, including for JADEP benefits.

“We are happy that the NHF is expanding its support for the treatment and management of chronic non-communicable diseases, through its Individual Benefits Programme. This is an important and worthwhile investment not only for individuals enrolled with NHF, but for the overall healthcare of the Jamaican population,” Anderson said.

He added: “The core mandate of the NHF is to reduce the burden of healthcare in Jamaica by providing greater access to medication and medical supplies through the provision of the NHFCard programme.”

Meanwhile, acting Board Chairman at the NHF Shane Dalling described the move as a bold step to further advance the mandate of the NHF.

“The Individual Benefits Programme is the core area of the NHF and therefore, it is imperative that the relevance of the programme be maintained, through the provision of meaningful benefits to individuals living with conditions covered on the NHFCard and expansion to other benefits,” he said.

In keeping with the NHF’s strategic priority to improve access and enhance customer satisfaction, changes will be made to the NHFcard to better assist the public.

The following changes is set to be made to the NHF’s Individual Benefit Programme.

NHFCard programme subsidy adjustment

Subsidies will be increased for medications for the treatment of eight conditions namely hypertension, epilepsy, sickle cell disease, glaucoma, diabetes, vascular disease and ischaemic heart disease.

Through this, approximately 400 drug items will have their subsidies increased with over 300,000 active beneficiaries set to benefit.  

JADEP Programme

The approximately 21,100 active JADEP beneficiaries will also benefit from the addition of new active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for the treatment of five conditions- arthritis, asthma, glaucoma, vascular disease and hypertension.

Diagnostic Test

One of the newest benefits that will be brought into effect is the addition of prostate specific antigen (PSA) test.

Males 40 years old and over who are enrolled on the NHFCard programme can now access one PSA test per year. Currently, the number of males 40 years and older registered on the individual benefits programme who are active claimants is 89,665.

The subsidy on the PSA test is set at $1,600 per test with one test per year being the maximum allowance.

With this the NHF, will be addressing some of the concerns that have been brought up by beneficiaries.

Dr Christopher Tufton, minister of health and wellness said as a lead agency in the public health response trust, the NHF is responding to the needs of the population. He also noted that “throughout its 20 years the agency continues to be a public pillar of public health and public health response.”

The last subsidy adjustments occurred in 2017 and in 2019 the list of conditions covered under the NHFCard Programme expanded to include Lupus.

The roll out of the new benefits will be done on a phased basis over the next four months.

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