The scheme in context
In January 2020 the Government of Cameroon eliminated user fees for patients who receive HIV-related services and introduced a voucher-based reimbursement mechanism for health facilities which provide such services.
The National AIDS Control Committee (NACC) of Cameroon has been mandated by the Ministry of Public Health (MOH) to remove all the user fees for HIV testing and treatment. The MOH would be reimbursing, through the Regional Funds for Health Promotion (RFHP), the health facilities for the HIV testing and treatment related expenditures for a patient. The MOH has selected openIMIS to manage the business processes as defined by the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) of the free HIV services program of Cameroon in select facilities of the Central and Northwest regions of Cameroon.
How the scheme uses openIMIS
openIMIS was customized to meet the business processes and workflows defined under the Standard Operating Procedures of the HIV user fee elimination scheme. Due to the sensitivity around collecting data of PLHIV, the customization efforts focused on manage beneficiaries with making the system feasible with the least amount of personal identification information being collected. The customization efforts also included creating standardized reports required by the Regional Funds for Health Promotion for the reimbursement of services provided to beneficiaries.
Following the elimination of user fees, the Ministry of Health, the Regional Funds for Health Promotion, and health facilities required a new set of business processes to track HIV-related service delivery, claim reimbursements and verify their accuracy. The Ministry of Health customised openIMIS to manage these processes. The software was rolled out on a pilot basis in the Central and Northern Regions in 2021.
UNFPA and Y-Note provide support to implementation. German Development Cooperation provides financial assistance.
Interoperability
openIMIS is linked to the DHIS2 patient tracker to combine patient data with financial information.
The pilot phase has provided learnings for the specific interoperability needs of the openIMIS implementation. In the next phase, a special focus will be on implementing interoperability with a HIV beneficiary management system as well as with the DHIS2 based Performance Based Financing portal (PBF-Portal) being used by the RFHP.
Full project scope
To learn more about the implementation of openIMIS, including the configuration and system set up, visit the wiki page
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