By Asim Hussain
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection, Senator Dr. Sania Nishtar in a meeting held here Friday officially opened the portal of Ehsaas Tahafuz (https://ehsaastahafuz.pass.gov.pk/) for empanelment of public hospitals under the precision safety net programme.
The meeting was held at Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division.
Secretary of the Division, Muhammad Ali Shahzada and Ehsaas Tahafuz Team was also present on the occasion.
“Ehsaas Tahafuz is an innovative health financing system which is fund based.
This complements the insurance-based Sehat Sahulat programme. It ensures universal health coverage and protects people from Catastrophic Health Expenditures”, Dr. Sania said.
The programme provides health facility to those patients who fall under a certain poverty level and are unable to receive treatment from Sehat Sahulat programme for any circumstances.
The programme currently covers around 900 treatment packages across 21 departments. There is also a flexibility to add new departments and treatment packages requested by empaneled hospitals.
Currently, the Tahafuz has partnered with 14 public sector hospitals across all seven federating units and covers “out of pocket expenditures” associated with pre-approved treatment packages.
Empaneled hospitals across Pakistan include Capital Hospital in Islamabad Capital Territory; Holy Family Hospital Rawalpindi, Nishtar Medical University and Hospital Multan, Children Hospital and Institute of Child Health Multan in Punjab; Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, Khyber Teaching Hospital Peshawar, Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar and District Headquarter Hospital Dera Ismail Khan in KP; Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Hospital Quetta and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Hospital Quetta in Balochistan; Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences in Sindh; Regional Headquarter Hospital and Provincial Headquarter Hospital in Gilgit and Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences in AJK.
According to the criteria given on Ehsaas Tahafuz portal, the tertiary care public hospitals able to perform treatment for Tahafuz approved conditions can express interest in partnering with Tahafuz.
Hospital signs and submits Expression of Interest along with basic hospital information by filling the registration form. Once Hospital details are uploaded on the Tahafuz website and are reviewed by the Tahafuz team.
If the hospital meets the criteria, Tahafuz team will reach out with next steps which include MOU signing with the hospital.
After the MOU is signed, a User ID and password is created for the hospital by the Tahafuz team and shared via text message. Hospital signs up with login details and is successfully registered on Tahafuz portal.
Recently, the Federal Cabinet also approved the Ehsaas Catastrophic Health Expenditure Policy and Ehsaas Tahafuz to ensure universal health coverage and protect people from Catastrophic Health Expenditure.
The programme represents a global innovation in health financing where a patient-level purchasing system has been developed at scale.
Ehsaas Tahafuz system is paperless, mobile-phone centered and technology-based. Its automated workflows, supply-chain management, tracking and time-shaping, and pre-configured rules for eligibility ascertainment, help overcome abuse and mistargeting of social protection funds. These features have made the system responsive and accountable.
