The government has announced that it is providing full medical coverage for COVID-19 patients through the national health insurance provider, the Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan).

Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy said the decision was made because of BPJS Kesehatan’s coverage capacity. 

"All costs for hospital treatments for COVID-19 patients will be handled by BPJS Kesehatan, because it has extensive experience in verifying claims from hospitals," Muhadjir said in a statement on Monday as reported by kompas.com.

Muhadjir said that this would also allow the government to accelerate payments to hospitals that were treating COVID-19 patients. 

He added that he had asked the BPJS Kesehatan president director, Fachmi Idris, to implement the measure in coordination with his office, the Health Ministry, the Finance Ministry, and the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

"The funds used [to cover] COVID-19 treatments does not come from either BPJS Kesehatan or the social security fund [DJS]. It is a dedicated fund [for COVID-19 prevention and control]," he stressed, and that BPJS Kesehatan would distribute the funds immediately.

"BPJS Kesehatan is ready to support the [COVID-19] payment policy," Fachmi said separately, and that BPJS Kesehatan would verify all claims from hospitals treating COVID-19 patients in an "accountable" manner before distributing the funds.

Earlier, the government designated 132 referral hospitals across the country for treating COVID-19 patients. (nal)