The Director of Corporate Affairs at the National Health Insurance Agency (NHIA), Oswald Mensah has stated that despite receiving numerous requests to expand their benefits package to cover additional diseases, the NHIA lacks the necessary resources to do so.
This issue has come to the forefront as there are numerous calls to include renal healthcare, specifically kidney dialysis treatment, under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Recently, the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital announced a 100% fee increase at their dialysis center, citing the removal of tax and import duty exemptions on medical consumables as the reason for this hike.
The hospital’s management had warned that if they continue to charge the old fees, the center may have to close down in a matter of days.
This situation has left renal patients in a difficult position, as the center has been admitting only emergency cases and has shut out-patient services since May of this year, forcing patients to seek more expensive dialysis care at private hospitals.
In response to these challenges, the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has expressed concerns about the high cost of treatment for renal patients in the country. He suggested that the NHIS should consider absorbing some of the costs incurred by renal patients during dialysis sessions.
In a media engagement,, Nkrumah emphasized the government’s responsibility to provide coverage for certain aspects of treatment, as the financial burden on kidney patients is becoming increasingly overwhelming.
He emphasized the critical importance of adequately financing the NHIS Fund to address these pressing healthcare needs.
“The government is waiting on the management of Korle Bu to complete its internal work and come forward with what its position is. The conversation has been going on, and I personally suggested that whatever the amount comes to, it is a matter that the NHIS Fund should be able to pick up. To achieve that, we need to take a lot more seriously the financing of the NHIS Fund to take up incidents like this. The amount is not something an individual will be able to cater for considering the number of dialyses one has to go through in a month, without draining their finances extensively.”he said
Howver, during an interview on JoyFM, Oswald Mensah explained that the inclusion of dialysis care in the NHIS would require comprehensive actuarial studies to assess its impact on the scheme’s overall sustainability.
“As you know with the NHIS benefits package, well over 95% disease conditions that are presented in hospitals are covered under the scheme. And we run an exclusions list unfortunately of which dialysis for chronic disease or kidney failure is on the list.
“But as in every case condition, we have so many people knocking on the door of NHIA to include almost everything onto the package and what is most important is always to measure the requests and demands of the scheme with the available resources that can enable this to happen.
“As we’re hearing, the dialysis treatment is quite expensive. If NHIA has to consider that, a lot of actuarial study would have to be carried out to see whether the scheme will be sustainable if we take it on board. But that being said if the patients present with acute renal failure for instance, the scheme covers that and pays for that.
“It’s only those who are on chronic diseases, kidney failures, those are the ones that are excluded for now and I’m sure conversations will be going on to see what can be done going forward,” he said.