The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives has directed the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTH), Ile-Ife, to provide a detailed list of Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) that owe the Federal Government a total of N49 million from 2021 to 2025.
The directive was issued on Tuesday during a review of the Auditor General’s 2021 report, which flagged the hospital’s failure to recover outstanding debts. The report initially identified an unrecovered debt of N32 million from 33 HMOs as of December 31, 2020. However, the total amount has since risen to N49 million.
Despite these debts, OAUTH continued providing services to HMOs, many of which had significant arrears. The hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Professor John Okeniyi, explained the challenges in recovering the funds, stating that the hospital could not refuse treatment to patients, even when their HMOs failed to pay.
“It’s very difficult to refuse to treat Nigerians coming to our hospital, regardless of their inability to pay,” Okeniyi said, adding that delays and underpayments from HMOs were a recurring issue, especially for patients covered by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
Okeniyi highlighted specific cases where two HMOs responsible for Obafemi Awolowo University students failed to reimburse the hospital despite the students being entitled to tertiary care services.
To address the situation, OAUTH has set up a task force, led by the hospital’s NHIA head, Mr. Lekan Orabiyi, to facilitate debt recovery. So far, the hospital has recovered N15.97 million of the N32 million initially flagged in the 2021 report.
During the hearing, the committee’s chairman, Mr. Bamidele Salam (Osun, PDP), questioned the hospital on the total outstanding debts. In response, Okeniyi confirmed that as of 2025, the amount had risen to N49 million.
Following this revelation, the committee ordered the hospital to submit a comprehensive list of the indebted HMOs and the specific amounts they owe to ensure transparency and accountability in the healthcare financing system.
