| NIB to give $10 million to government | | Print | |
| Written by Richard Green/richard@fptci.com | |||
| Thursday, 26 January 2012 11:40 | |||
 His Excellency the Gov. Ric Todd says he will make a special law to transfer $10 million from the National Insurance Board because it refuses to pay money it owes the National Health Insurance Board. “The proposal to transfer $10 million from the NIB to (government) has regrettably been the subject of ill-informed and often incorrect comment,” the governor said in a statement Jan. 25. “The public has been unnecessarily alarmed by false statements, for example that the transfer is from ‘their pension fund.’” In addition to having a fund to pay pensions to retirees, the NIB has a fund to pay for health care costs for worker injuries. That fund can only be spent for health care and cannot be used for pensions unless the pension fund falls short, which it currently does not. A recent actuarial review of the NIB showed that it has paid very little to government for worker injury and disability costs since 1992. As a result, that fund has accumulated a $20 million surplus. The actuary estimated that NIB owes government $10 million that it has never paid or underpaid for workers injuries and disabilities since 1992. Because the National Health Insurance Program (NHIP) now provides most medical services and is severely underfunded, the governor and his Advisory Council decided in October that NIB should give $10 million to the government to cover part of NHIP’s shortfall. “In this respect, I intend to make a law, the sole purpose of which is to ensure that this one time transfer can take place,” the governor said. The NIB started the inaccurate claim that the money would come from its pension fund in a statement on its website in November: “The NIB board and management believes that the government should solve its debt and health care issues through a different approach than simply taking the people’s pension funds and using them as a stop gap measure to fund the financial crisis.” The governor reiterated that law requires the injury and disability fund to only be used for medical expenses except in the case of a pension shortfall. The NIB says it has paid $50,000 every year from 1992 to 2009 to government for those workers’ injuries, even though government had never submitted claims for actual costs. When government submitted its first request in 2009 for $837,000, the NIB and government agreed that amount would satisfy NIB’s total indebtedness to government for 1992-2009, according to the NIB. “This is clearly a gross underestimate of the amount owed to (government),” Todd said of that payment. “Instead of paying an appropriate amount to the public purse, the NIB’s Employment Injury Branch has, since 1992, amassed a very significant $20 million surplus. Much of this is money that should have been paid to (government).” The actuary pointed out that there is a current problem with determining how much NIB should pay each year because NHIP does not produce bills for specific services provided. InterHealth Canada hospitals “may not even know that the patient being treated is someone ordinarily covered by the NIB,” the actuary said. “To determine whether or not the amount transferred is reasonable, the (NIB) should monitor the treatment provided to its claimants at InterHealth Canada facilities and get frequent reports so that in two to three years, a good estimate of the costs associated with treating injured claimants can be obtained,” the actuary recommended.
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