The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) pays an average of GHC150 million in claims monthly to health facilities across the country, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye, Chief Executive Officer of the scheme has said.
This is an increase of about 50% from the amount previously paid by the Authority.
“I can tell you that every month we pay an average of GHC 150 million to health facilities across Ghana for attending to NHIS clients,” he said at the commissioning of a new NHIS office at Ejisu in the Ashanti Region.
He further said, “This figure was about GHC 100 million some seven months ago, but we have increased it by close to 50 per cent due to the movement of the currency and inflationary pressures.”
The newly commissioned offices would be a permanent one for the Ejisu and Juaben Municipalities after years of operating in rented offices.
Management of the Scheme after paying huge sums of money for renting the previous office, approached the Chief of Ejisu, Nana Afrane Okese who then donated the land for the construction of the new edifice.
Dr. Okoe Boye said despite challenges facing the Scheme it remained one of the most impactful interventions introduced by successive governments.
He said it was very important for every citizen to hold an NHIS card to be able to access affordable healthcare as a citizen with inalienable rights to quality healthcare.
He expressed concern that some unscrupulous persons in health facilities continued to take illegal charges from clients, adding that, steps were being taken to monitor activities of such people and bring them to book.
“Very soon we are going to invite some of the heads of hospitals who we have sent teams to and have brought us reports of the practice of illegal charges in their facilities,” he said.
The CEO said the Government was committed to ensuring the sustainability of the NHIS, saying that, what Ghanaians had to do was to report anomalies at the facilities to the Scheme to help improve on service delivery.
He paid glowing tribute to the Chief of Ejisu for providing the land for the project free of charge and assured the people of Ejisu and its environs of quality service delivery.
Mr. Samuel Oduro, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), said the role of the NHIS in the lives of the citizenry could not be overemphasised considering the importance of the health of the people.
He said the Scheme had come a long way from manual registration to the current use of technology by clients to enrol or renew their membership.
The MCE said the introduction of the NHIS had significantly increased Out- Patient Department (OPD) attendance due to the elimination of the “cash and carry” system which was denying the poor access to healthcare.
Nana Afrane Okese, the Chief of Ejisu in an address read on his behalf commended the Authority for putting up a befitting office for its staff.
He appealed to the Ejisu staff of the Scheme to adopt friendly and polite customer service attitude when attending to their clients and also pledged his continuous support to the office as the traditional leader.