NHIA CEO, Dr. Okoe Boye
Story by: Ishmael Barfi
As part of its measures to provide quality access to Healthcare services, the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has settled claims due various Health Service Providers across the country.
Giving breakdown of the claims worth GHC471 Million Cedis at a press briefing at its head office, Accra on Friday, 7th July, 2023, the Chief Executive Officer for National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr. Okoe Boye explained that, the NHIA between May & June 2023 alone paid over GHC 367 Million Cedis to over 4,000 health facilities across Ghana.
To be committed to its course, he revealed that, a further payment of GHC104.5 Million would be paid after the briefing on that faithful day, 7th of July 2023.
This feat he reiterated is the first time in several years, the NHIS is back into the accepted 90-day arrears window meaning that health providers are only owed two (2) months of claims for February and March 2023.
Over the years, Dr. Okoe Boye acknowledged that, previous management teams have had to traverse the difficult path of pooling funds from the Ministry of Finance (MOF) to pay for claims.
“Though OPD cases and membership in the Scheme have seen some upward trends coupled with the tariff adjustments, the NHIA today pays on average between GHC150 –GHC200 Million per month as claims reimbursements”, he reiterated.
He attributed the above statement to the public’s reliance on the use of the NHIS membership card to seek healthcare adding that, it is still very encouraging across the country.
The NHIA’s engagement with the Ministry of Finance he noted has improved significantly resulting in more frequent releases to the fund.
Revealing that, Ministry of Finance has ensured that funds earmarked to support the NHIS are adequately protected and released on time despite the general economic challenges.
Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is one of the major social intervention policies bequeathed to the nation by the Act of Parliament 650 (Act 650, 2003) as amended in 2012 with Act 852 to provide access to healthcare.
The NHIS Benefit Package covers over 95% of disease conditions that afflict residents of Ghana and has been detailed in the NHIS Act, Membership Handbook, and published on the website – www.nhis.gov.gh with services such as outpatient, in-patient, surgeries, oral, dental. There are over 550 formulations on the NHIS Medicines list to take care of all the diseases covered under the Scheme.
As of the end of 2022, the NHIS Scheme had an active membership of 17.2 million, representing approximately 55 percent of the population which is the highest since the inception of the Scheme.
The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has credentialed over 4,500 health facilities across the country comprising Public, Private, Quasi, and Faith-based facilities with a variety of levels as CHPS Compounds, Health Centres, Pharmacies, Diagnostic Centres, Primary Hospitals, Secondary and Tertiary with the very latest being the International Maritime Hospital (GH) LTD (IMaH) in Tema Community One.
NHIA over the past twenty (20) years, has undertaken several reforms to make the NHIS more efficient, attractive, and sustainable ranging from the introduction of the instant issuance of a Biometric membership card system to the renewal of membership and self-enrolment using USSD (*929#) and applications (MyNHISApp) on mobile phones.
Since 2022, the NHIA has introduced robust innovations geared towards enhancing productivity, improving efficiency, and increasing visibility and brand recognition among others. Some of the homegrown innovations comprise NHIS and Ghana Cards linkage, Partnership with premier league clubs to increase membership, the formation of National Committees against Illegal payments, the launch of the MyNHIS App, the Free Elderly Healthcare policy, and the Sunshine Policy.
Source: www.thenewindependentonline.com
