Approximately 4.1 million claims were made by the more than 248,000 Jamaican residents using their National Health Fund (NHF) cards at participating pharmacies islandwide, compared to over 239,000 individuals using their cards in 2016.

Arising from these claims, the NHF spent just over $4.3 billion in subsidy payment for NHF cardholders, which is slightly more than the subsidy of just over $4.1 billion paid out in 2016.

The NHF, in a press release, said conditions with the highest claims were hypertension with 19,913 claims, arthritis with 12,999 claims, vascular disease with 12,778 claims and high cholesterol with 12,405 claims.

The press release also stated that the NHF has seen an increase in the number of people enrolled for benefits under the NHF Health Card in 2017, with figures indicating that 29,472 people enrolled for benefits up from 28,557 in 2016, amounting to a three per cent increase.

Further, there was a five per cent increase in the number of people enrolling for the Jamaica Drugs for the Elderly Programme (JADEP) during the year, with 11,499 people over the age of 60 years enrolling, compared to 10,937 in 2016.

Everton Anderson, CEO of the NHF, said, “The fund is committed to increasing access to quality pharmaceuticals for Jamaican residents and will continue to provide support to reduce the burden of health care costs, especially as we focus on improving the delivery of pharmacy services in the public sector in 2018.”

Throughout 2017, several changes to the NHF and JADEP drug lists were made, including changes in drug limits, label names and the addition of new Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs).

In April 2017, more than 400 subsidies were revised, resulting in an increase in the amount paid by the NHF. There was also a general revision of the JADEP drug list in June 2017 which also brought about increased drug limits, the addition of nine new APIs and 19 new drug presentations.

In addition, during 2017 the NHF continued the takeover of public sector pharmacies and at year end staff in all except four parishes were under NHF management.

The NHF release said the full transfer of the public sector pharmacy services will be completed in 2018 and the fund has planned new initiatives to improve service and waiting time for public patients. This includes the expansion of the Public Private Sector Pharmacy Partner Programme (PPP) in which public patients can access approved medication at selected private pharmacies for a fee of $200.

During the pilot of the PPP in 2017, approximately 55,000 prescriptions were filled for public patients in 17 private pharmacies located in Kingston and St Andrew, May Pen, Clarendon, and Montego Bay, St James.

Meanwhile, the NHF has also continued offering screening tests islandwide through the hosting of community health days and screening services offered at sponsored events.

Said the NHF: “Seventy-six community health days were conducted in which 51,274 screening tests were done, while 45,879 screening tests were done for various sponsored health fairs during the year.”