ABSTRACT

National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cover for some optometric services and private Health Management Organizations (HMOs) also cover for some optometric services. The coverage rate and access to these services has not been fully understood hence the purpose of this research. This study employed the use of online questionnaires which were uploaded to google and sent out to about hundred optometrists across Nigeria. The questionnaire was aimed at obtaining information on access to optometric services between NHIS and private HMOs in Nigeria. The data collected was analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 2.0 and Microsoft excel.  The use of descriptive statistics such as percentages and tables were employed, to summarize and present the collected in forms of bar charts for proper understanding. Chi square statistics was used to analyze the coverage rate and speed of payment between the NHIS and HMOs (X^2=200, df=4, p=0.000). Among the respondents from different states in Nigeria, participants with higher responses were from Edo (30%), Lagos (19%) and Delta (18%) states. The result also shows that most of the respondents (73%) had experience from 0-3 years, 25% of the respondents had 4 to 10 years’ experience and 2% had above 10 years of experience in optometric profession. In conclusion, the result of the study showed that of the respondent preferred private HMOs in terms of coverage rate, speed of payment and time response to patients.