The Defence Health Maintenance Limited (DHML), the health maintenance organization for serving and retired members of the Nigerian Armed Forces, has held its 2023 edition of the annual Interactive meeting with the various military veteran groups with the theme “Advancing the Healthcare of Military Veterans.”
Speaking at the meeting, the Minister of State for Defence Dr Bello Matawalle said the DHML has so far captured about 110,000 retired military veterans as enrolees on its database.
The minister, who was represented by the Director of Health Services, Ministry of Defence, called on all military veterans who are yet to be enrolled to key into the programme.
He said that efforts were being made to ensure that all illnesses not currently included in the benefits package for the health insurance of the military veterans were captured in due course.
In his keynote address, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the DHML, Surgeon Rear Admiral Azeez Bayo Afolayan (Rtd), said the meeting was aimed at sensitizing the representatives of the various military veteran groups on the benefits available to their members.
He said the meeting was organised to emphasize the necessity of enrolling on the DHML database and provide eligibility criteria for prospective enrolees.
He said the core mandate of the DHML was to ensure that all military ppersonnel, both serving and retired, their spouses and four biological children below 18 have easy access to good and qualitative health care services.
According to him, the first meeting which took place in 2022 with 16 groups saw an upsurge in enrollment by military retirees.
He said the DHML has created a new Department of Care Coordination to further ensure seamless access to healthcare by the enrolees in various hospitals and medical centres.
He said the meeting also cleared some misconceptions on eligibility and benefits.
The DHML is a major award winning HMO, emerging as the best HMO of the decade at the 7th Africa Quality Achievements Awards in 2021 in Abuja. DHML currently partners with over 200 military healthcare providers and over 2000 civilian healthcare providers spread all over the country.
