APTN National News
OTTAWA–The electronic system that processes medical and dental claims for First Nations and Inuit people has been down since Monday and Health Canada says it doesn’t know how long it will take to fix the problem.
A Health Canada spokesperson said Health Canada’s Non-Insured Health Benefits program has been hit by “intermittent outages” since Monday.
Stephane Shank, however, said he couldn’t say what triggered the outages or when the department thought the system would be up and running.
“It is a technical issue,” he said. “I don’t have any details beyond that.”
Shank also couldn’t say why people who get medicine under the program were not informed by the department. He said Health Canada will be posting information on its website by Thursday morning.
Shank said pharmacies have been advised to continue providing medications to NIHB clients and submit the claims once the system is operational again
“Pharmacists are encouraged to provide the normal course of medication for all open (unrestricted) drug benefits,” said Shank.
Shank said Health Canada will be advising stakeholders like the Assembly of First Nations and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami as the situation develops.
The Canadian Pharmacists Association released a statement on the issue mid-afternoon Wednesday.
“The complete system is currently non-functional and pharmacists will not be able to file claims to NIHB for affected patients,” said the statement. “In the interim, NIHB is encouraging pharmacists to provide medications under the emergency supply policy outlined below.”
The lack of information from Health Canada and the timing of the outage which coincided with Idle No More rallies across Canada has created widespread fears on social media that the federal government was punishing First Nations people.
What next : I would not trust Harper farther than the spit that falls out of my missing front tooth,
Apprpve
I work in a Pharmacy and this has been frustrating beyond belief. Being as NIHB and ESI are on the same system, I too am wondering why one is working and the other is not?? We are providing all medication in the interim but if something is rejected once the system is up and running, it is the pharmacy who takes the loss. We are now up to 3 days of “honor” billing and it all has to be backdated and back billed once the system is up. THAT is going to be a nightmare!!!
I can see how this kind of thing tech problem can drag out. It has been intermittent so that means they worked on it and it went down again. However, lets watch for a trend here. I don’t put anything past this government.
How convenient…I wonder how may more such “technical issues” will pop up as First Nations continue to stand their ground. Never give up, never give in!
And so it begins with messing with Our Treaties!!!! I ain’t gonna hold my breath pay for meds ourselves like we more than likely will be in the future to come! Good luck fellow Aboriginal Sisters and Brothers </3
I don’t think this emergency supply policy will work in all places like our home town of turtleford saskatchewan we have tried all day today to get medince today and we werrefused and turned away when our pharmacist told me there is inconsistancies in the emergency supply policy.