The Deputy Director, Corporate Affairs of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), has spoken against the shabby treatment of card bearers of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) by service providers.
Mr Eric Ametor Quarme expressed concern about the anomaly despite the huge sums of money the Government was paying to the providers under the NHIS.
He said last year a total of GH¢374 million was paid to the providers hence the need for them to improve upon their services in order not to defeat the purpose of the NHIS.
Mr Quarme was speaking at a ground breaking ceremony in Koforidua on Monday for the construction of an office complex for the Eastern Regional Office of the NHIA.
He said some service providers were also abusing the NHIS by putting in fraudulent claims.
Mr Quarme said GH¢ 17 million of such claims was retrieved last year.
He said NHIA would not relent in its efforts to retrieve any stolen money and prosecute the culprits to serve as a deterrent to others.
He challenged Scheme Managers to be vigilant to be able to detect the fraudulent claims to help save the NHIS from collapsing.
Mr Quarme said there would be a number of training programmes for staff of the NHIS this year to broaden their outlook.
Mr Mohammed Ahmed Baba Jamal, out-going Deputy Regional Minister, said government was committed to the sustainability of the scheme in accordance with a provision in the Directive Principles of State Policy.
He said the new strategic direction of the scheme was the implementation of a Universal Health Insurance Scheme, which would reflect the universal contribution of all Ghanaians to access free health care in public institutions.
“The scheme also seeks to cut down health insurance bureaucracy and plough back the savings into health care as well as review the disease and drug categories,” he said.
Mr Baba Jamal said government was committed to the implementation of “One Time” payment policy of the scheme.
“Time payment policy will be implemented after meaningful education and sensitisation exercises had been carried out to allay the fears of the public about the perceived problems to be encountered in the implementation of the onetime policy”.
He therefore entreated the citizenry to depoliticise the onetime policy and make it assume its proper position as a national social intervention.
Mr Wilhelmina Affram, Regional Manager, NHIA commended the government for the commencement of the project which had been on the drawing board since 2006.
He also thanked the Regional Co-ordinating Council for releasing the land towards the construction of the project.
Source: GNA