Wow! Arrears Of JKN Contributions At BPJS Kesehatan Manokwari Reaches IDR 1 Billion

Head of BPJS Kesehatan Manokwari Branch Deny Jermy Eka Putra Mase (ANTARA)

MANOKWARI - The arrears of the National Health Insurance-Healthy Indonesia Card (JKN) contributions for independent participants in the Manokwari BPJS Kesehatan Branch Office, West Papua have now reached IDR 1 billion.

Head of BPJS Kesehatan Manokwari Branch, Deny Jermy Eka Putra Mase, said his staff had created an innovation called REHAB or Gradual Payment Plan to provide opportunities for independent participants who are in arrears in JKN-KIS contributions to pay off their obligations.

"Through this program called REHAB, people who have arrears in JKN-KIS contributions are welcome to access this program to ease the payment process", said Deny in Manokwari, Antara, Thursday, July 21.

As of the end of June, the number of participants of the BPJS Kesehatan or JKN-KIS program at the Manokwari Branch Office was 5,635,274 people, or 103 percent of the target of 5,463,000 people, spread throughout Indonesia.

Some of the participants are in the inactive category, namely those who are in arrears in paying JKN-KIS contributions. The handling of the problem of arrears in JKN-KIS contributions for independent participants, said Deny, was quite complicated and caused a polemic.

BPJS Kesehatan Manokwari experienced many obstacles when informing participants to immediately pay off their obligations.

"On average they register as participants when they need health services", he explained.

Some of the modes commonly used by participants, he said, for example, one month before giving birth, they just registered to participate in the JKN-KIS program according to class.

For class III, they only pay a monthly fee of IDR 42 thousand, of which only IDR 35 thousand is paid because half of it is subsidized by the government. After 14 days, the membership is active.

However, after receiving health services, the person concerned did not want to pay the National Health Insurance – Healthy Indonesia Card (JKN-KIS) dues.

Non-active participants, he said, could not access all services at health facilities in collaboration with BPJS Kesehatan, starting from first-level health facilities such as public health centers (Puskesmas), family doctors, private clinics, and referral services to advanced health facilities at hospitals.

"Some are in arrears for years, so they can no longer pay. We have tried to contact them via WhatsApp bless, by telephone, through REHAB, and JKN cadres even visited their homes, but there were many obstacles. Some claimed they had no money, or the money has been used to pay for the children's schooling, has not received a salary and a thousand and one other reasons", said Deny.

Until this July, West Papua Province is one of the provinces in Indonesia that has achieved universal health coverage where most of the population has received health insurance through BPJS Kesehatan.

In the West Papua region, there are two BPJS Kesehatan offices, namely BPJS Kesehatan Manokwari Branch which covers Manokwari Regency, South Manokwari, Wondama Bay, Bintuni Bay, Kaimana, Fakfak and Arfak Mountains and West Papua Province.

Of the seven regencies, there is only one district that has not yet achieved the standard value of health insurance for its entire population, namely the Arfak Mountains Regency, where currently JKN-KIS program participation in the region only accommodates 75 percent of the total population.

The BPJS Kesehatan Sorong Branch Office covers the City and Regencies of Sorong, South Sorong, Maybrat, Raja Ampat and Tambrauw.