Upper West NHIA records zero financial malfeasance
The Upper West Regions remains a region with no single incident of financial malfeasance regarding the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Mr Titus Sorey, Regional Manager of National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has said.
He said the region also remains on top when it comes to compliance with corporate directives, providing financial risk protection for inhabitants and general performance on the scheme.
Mr Sorey made this known at the inauguration of a GH¢650,000.00 Regional Office Complex for the NHIA in Wa.
He said the region had exceeded its first quarter target by 33 per cent, and also contributed more to the National Health Insurance Fund than it spends annually, contributing five per cent of the total fund.
It also spent three per cent of the total fund.
Mr Sorey said the region has the highest renewal and reactivation rate of membership of the scheme in Ghana with an active membership of 56.77 per cent.
Mr Oswald Essuah- Mensah, an official at the Corporate Affairs Directorate of the NHIA said currently, the scheme had covered more than eight million active subscribers through a network of 3,200 service providers, accounting for more than 85 per cent of internally generated funds of healthcare facilities.
He said the utilisation of healthcare services had grown from about 600,000 outpatient visits in 2005 to more than 25 million visits in 2011, while claims payment rose from GH¢7.6 million in 2005 to GH¢650 million in 2012.
He said under the National Health Insurance Act 2012, Act 852, 145 semi-autonomous schemes had been consolidated into a single and unified NHIS, thereby eliminating administrative and operational bottlenecks within the scheme.
A modern claims processing centre to help inject efficiency in claims processing and speed up payment has been established, with one in Tamale to cater for Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions.
He said the scheme is also about to introduce biometric registration and instant issuance of identity cards to its clients.
Dr Ephraim Avea Nsoh, Regional Minister said despite the success story of the NHIS active members enrolled on the scheme in the region as at the end of the first quarter of the 2013 stood at 421,988, representing 56.77 per cent of the region’s population.
He tasked scheme managers and the municipal, district assemblies in the region to scale up membership drive and achieve 75 per cent coverage by the end of 2014.
Dr Nsoh advised authorities of the scheme to take good care of the facility and make it a centre of excellence for the promotion of quality healthcare delivery.
Source: GNA