Abstract:

Background: Health informatics in its simplest term is about getting the right information to the right person at the right time (National Health Services of America, 2015). It is a multidisciplinary field that uses health information technology (HIT) to improve health care especially in the health insurance industry via the combination of high quality, higher efficiency (spurring lower cost and thus greater availability), and new opportunities.

The specific objectives are to evaluate the level of awareness on health informatics to National Health Insurance Scheme in Nigeria; to find the challenges associated with application of health informatics by National Health Insurance Scheme; find the prospects of health informatics in National Health Insurance Scheme.

Methodology: the study uses primary source by administering a questionnaire to both the NHIS staff and enrollees /clients and about 200 completed and the returned the tool i.e. about 90% respond rate.

Some of the prospects includes assisting healthcare providers and system organize resources and records for decisions making and patient management; it tracks and keep patients records; it tracks of fund disbursement utilization and improve communication etc.

The challenges identified are, high cost of establishing the system; interconnected Health Informatics system requires leadership, organizational commitment, and multi-agency collaboration.

The finding recommends that government should fund for the establishment of the unit, trained professionals to handle the unit, sensitize the communities on the benefit.

Keywords: informatics, healthcare, evaluation, health insurance, technology.

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