Sunyani Municipal Health Insurance Scheme makes strides

The Sunyani Municipal Health Insurance Scheme (SMHIS) registered 109,403 active clients representing 80.5 per cent of the projected population of 135,904 in the Municipality.

In addition, it introduced free maternal health care in line with the Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG5).

Mr Kwasi Oppong-Ababio, Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive, said this when addressing the Third Ordinary Meeting of the Assembly in Sunyani on Wednesday.

He said the Scheme had chalked several achievements since its establishment 10 years ago.

Mr Oppong-Ababio said to curb fraud, ensure effective time management and to reduce data loss in the system the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) had introduced electronic claims processing centre and clinical audit of the providers.

The SMHIS is now training personnel with the requisite skills to operate electronic claims processing and clinical audit systems.

Mr Oppong-Ababio said the Scheme, in collaboration with the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development, had registered 75 per cent of the indigenes in the Municipality.

However, he expressed worry that the Scheme had faced abuse by clients and service providers and explained that while the clients moved from a service provider to another within the same period for health care, the service provider gave more drugs than what was prescribed by medical officers.

Mr Oppong-Ababio said these issues put huge financial burden on the Scheme and the government, adding that another challenge was the difficulty in distributing clients’ identification cards due to their relocations and negative attitudes.

Source: GNA