The need to improve governance for the distribution of incentives and death benefits for health workers

The need to improve governance for the distribution of incentives and death benefits for health workers

February 19, 2021. The President of the Republic of Indonesia is committed to providing incentives and death benefits to health workers. This is stated in the Decree of the Minister of Health (KMK) of the Republic of Indonesia No.HK. 01. 07/ Menkes/2539/2020 which states that all health workers who provide services to Covid-19 patients are entitled to incentive funds and if they die are entitled to death compensation.

Unfortunately KMK 2539/2020 only guarantees incentives and compensation to health workers tasked with providing special Covid-19 services. Meanwhile, health workers who do not directly serve Covid-19 patients do not receive incentives. This includes non-medical health workers such as cleaning service workers, laundry workers,
administrative staff, and others.

In fact, all health workers who work in health service facilities are also susceptible to being infected with Covid-19. Especially when there is a high number of COVID-19 cases with probable, suspected or OTG status coming to primary and non-primary health care facilities.
to get medical help. So, all health workers who work during the pandemic are entitled to incentives.

Even though the government has canceled plans to cut incentives in early February 2021, the distribution of incentives and death benefits still needs to be monitored. This is done to ensure that health workers receive incentive funds and death benefits
on time and in the right amount, as well as minimizing fraud and corrupt practices by various parties.

ReportCovid-19 Findings:

For this reason, LaporCovid-19 collects data via a Google form which is distributed on January 8 – February 5 2021 with the help of professional organizations (IDI, IBI, PPNI, PATELKI). The form is divided into two parts, namely the incentive fund and death compensation forms. We received 3,689 health workers for incentives, 29 respondents for compensation.

Our findings show that 2,754 (75%) of the 3,689 health workers have not received or received no incentives at all. Meanwhile, the rest have received incentives but with notes. About 6% of them have problems with irregular distribution
or late, the calculation of incentives does not comply with the Ministry of Health's technical guidelines, there are even cuts to the incentive funds that have been provided.

Meanwhile, of the 2,754 health workers who have not received incentives, 854 of them have/are currently infected with Covid-19. Of the 854 infected health workers, 624 of them were health workers who directly handled Covid-19 patients, while the other 230 health workers did not handle Covid-19 patients directly.

For compensation funds, there are 29 data on families/heirs of health workers who have not received death compensation from the government. We got good practice from a family/heir who received death compensation of IDR 5,000,000 from the PPNI East Java professional organization.

Meanwhile, as of February 5 2021 Pusara Digital LaporCovid-19 recorded around 704 health workers who died. However, based on data from the Ministry of Health on January 8 2021, only 197 death benefits have been distributed to families/heirs. This means that no more than half of the number of health workers who died due to COVID-19 received their rights, namely death compensation given to their families/heirs.

Based on this, we urge that:
1. The central government and regional governments immediately distribute incentives and death benefits that have been hampered to health workers or families/heirs for death benefits.

2. The government provides incentive funds for health workers who do not work in special Covid-19 departments as well as volunteers and honorary health workers in Covid-19 services, but are exposed to Covid-19. Our findings show that 230 (26.93%) of 854 health workers who did not work in Covid-19 services were exposed to Covid-19. This means that they have the same potential risk of being infected from their workplace. The government also needs to cover all costs for treatment and recovery for exposed health workers. Our findings show that there are health workers who have to pay for testing, care and treatment because they are infected with Covid-19.

3. The government will immediately revise KMK 2539/2020 by providing provisions on disbursement deadlines and fair amounts of funds for health workers. Including an open mechanism for collecting data and proposing incentives, both in health service facilities and health offices.

4. As a form of transparency and accountability in the distribution of funds, the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Home Affairs and related agencies must disclose information about the amount of allocation and the process of realizing incentive funds in real time. So that the public can easily access and obtain information
clearly.

5. The government must protect every health worker who reports suspected irregularities in the governance of the distribution of incentives and death benefits.

Document Policy Briefs:
bit.ly/PolicyBrief_Nakes

Citizens Coalition for Fair Health Access

Contact Person:
Firdaus Ferdiansyah – LaporCovid-19 (087838822426)
Amanda Tan – ReportCovid-19 (085866044058)
Wana Alamsyah – Indonesia Corruption Watch (087878611344)

Please download this Press Release document via the following link.
Press Release Improved Governance for Distribution of Incentives and Death Compensation for Health Workers_Community Coalition for Fair Health Access