Minister of Health confirms no redundancies at HIP

Today, in response to the announcement made by the BPSU regarding the redundancies at the Health Insurance Section of the Ministry, The Minister of Health, the Hon. Nelson Bascome, refutes claims by the BPSU that any staff will be made redundant at the HIP Office.

In a terse response the Minister agreed with the union president that unions need to do their jobs; however, they must do it with the correct information.

Minister Bascome stated, “the release by the BPSU that redundancies will be made is irresponsible and alarmist to the hard working staff.”

The Permanent Secretary, Director and Assistant Director of the Health Insurance section met with the BPSU in February 2008 and gave an update of the planned automation of HIP.

At that meeting the Assistant Director advised that HIP employs eight permanent staff and fifteen temporary employees on six month contracts. The union expressed no concerns with the outsourcing of claims processing, as this did not impact the permanent staff.

Internally, the outsourcing discussed with staff was about the automation of the now manual process that prepares claims for clients of HIP and processes payments for all service providers.

This new automated system will require the retention of all permanent staff and also an increase in staff levels to keep claims current.

This process is now in the bidding stage, two companies have been short listed and negotiations have begun.

The Minister of Health strongly reiterates that permanent staff jobs are not under threat and there is no plan to make people redundant.