Health voucher programmes: Govt moves to resolve delayed payments to service providers

The Government is working to resolve the issue of delayed payments to various service providers under the Health Ministry’s various voucher programmes that were rolled out last year.
In 2024, the Government introduced vouchers for eye tests and spectacles for school children as well as pensioners. Those vouchers are valued $2000 for eye tests and $15,000 for spectacles.
Last year, the Government had also launched the cervical screening programme, targeting women between the ages of 21 to 65.
Eligible women received $8,000 vouchers for cervical cancer screenings.
A number of private service providers across the country had signed up with the Health Ministry to accept the vouchers. However, it has since been revealed that a number of these organisations have had issues with receiving payments from the Government for accepting the vouchers.
Nevertheless, during the launch of this year’s voucher programmes on Monday, Permanent Secretary of the Health Ministry Malcolm Watkins assured that the issue is being addressed.

“We sat down with the internal team, went through that feedback and tried to put some systems or improve the existing systems to make this year a bit more seamless we understand that last year there were some delays in payments. I can tell you now that we have resolved that with the Ministry of Finance and you will be called to get to pick up those unpaid from last year but we will try to solve it this year.”
The Ministry also signed new Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with service providers for its eye testing and spectacles as well as its cervical cancer screening programmes which will continue this year.
Additionally, MoUs were signed with the service providers for the Government’s universal health voucher programme which was announced in Budget 2025. This year, Watkins emphasised that more work is needed to ensure these programmes benefit citizens from the hinterland.
“So, I think one of the areas we need to focus on is how do we put systems in place to access to give people in the hinterland more access to lab services and we would hope that what we discussed the last time with the Minister that you begin to think not only within the box but out of the box to find ways to get those samples in and get those screenings done.”
Meanwhile, to avoid any issues with this year’s programmes, the Ministry is urging service providers to carefully follow their instructions for receiving payments.
Dr Lachmie Lall, Director of the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Programme, provided new service providers with an overview of how the voucher verification process is conducted.
“Once you would have done your testing, you update all of your information into the spreadsheet, and then you prepare your invoices, and you send that to the Ministry. When you send your information in the spreadsheet, our team from the medical treatment department, they will now go through, verify all of the voucher numbers that have been placed in the spreadsheet.”
She added, “They will then share that with the surveillance team. The surveillance team now will go to the Google Sheet that you have inputted all of the patient’s information, and they’re going to verify each patient from that list, and then they will sign off on the invoices, and then that will go on to the accounts, to the Permanent Secretary for signing, and then on to the accounts department for processing.”
Meanwhile, last year, Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo had lamented the low uptake of these initiatives. He had explained that the eye tests and spectacles programme was intended to target 200,000 children and some 74,000 pensioners but as of September 2024, only 23,000 eyes tests have been done and some 18,750 spectacles.
Likewise, the cervical cancer screening programme targeting women aged 21-65, offering vouchers for screening at approved facilities. As of September 2024, only one per cent of distributed vouchers redeemed.
Jagdeo had said that out of the 60,000 vouchers made available to women only 3,300 tests have been conducted. Some 300,000 women were eligible for the programme.