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BPJS must crack down on late fee payers, insists watchdog
The Social Security Management Agency (BPJS) should be stricter with employers whose payments to its health program are in arrears, a watchdog has said, in order to stop the agency falling into deficit and ensure all workers are covered by the program
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he Social Security Management Agency (BPJS) should be stricter with employers whose payments to its health program are in arrears, a watchdog has said, in order to stop the agency falling into deficit and ensure all workers are covered by the program.
Timboel Siregar from BPJS Watch said that the BPJS was too passive and failed to act against employers who did not promptly pay their dues to the agency's program.
'The agency generally does nothing until the companies are three months late with their payments; on the other hand, it immediately blocks workers' access to the benefits,' Timboel said. 'Closing the access only hurts the workers, who are consequently unable to use hospital facilities.'
He added that the current practice also risked bringing about a financial deficit at the BPJS, which suffered losses of Rp 4 trillion in 2014.
He suggested, as such, that the BPJS change its policy in dealing with late payments, arguing that the agency should be more proactive and take immediate action against companies that missed payments.
The agency, he added, was within its rights immediately to reprimand companies failing to pay the fees without waiting for them to fall three months into arrears.
Stricter action would bring about a drop in late payments, Timboel said, adding that his institution had recorded at least 15 companies in Greater Jakarta that had failed to pay the social fees in time.
Koperasi Karyawan (Employee Cooperative) under state-owned shipyard Dok & Perkapalan Kodja Bahari Galangan II (DKB 2) was among those companies, he revealed.
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'The BPJS generally does nothing until companies are three months late with their payments. On the other hand, it immediately blocks workers' access to the benefits.'
Workers at Koperasi Karyawan have been demanding their rights after the cooperative proved unable to provide for their security, as well as being unable to pay their salaries.
Paimin, Koperasi Karyawan's labor union chief, said that workers had been unable to use hospital facilities for a year despite the company making deductions from their salaries to pay the fees of the Healtchare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan). According to Paimin, hospital management always rejected his colleagues' BPJS Kesehatan cards, claiming that the insurance was no longer valid.
'I was surprised to learn about the issue from my friends, so I asked the management of Koperasi Karyawan about it. I was even more surprised when they told me that they had no money to pay for the insurance,' Paimin said.
He added that Koperasi Karyawan was continuing to deduct 1 percent of its employees' salaries for BPJS Kesehatan fees despite failing to then actually pay the fees to the agency.
Koperasi Karyawan deputy head Janhari admitted that his cooperative had been unable to pay for BPJS Kesehatan since July last year because of a lack of funds.
He explained that the cooperative operated as a manpower supplier to DKB 2, which, he claimed, had been failing to pay invoices for manpower supply on time. This was the cause of Koperasi Karyawan's financial shortfall, he said.
He added that the cooperative had, moreover, been unable to pay its workers' full salaries for the last six months. (agn)
