Members of the Private Healthcare Providers Association together with the Health Insurance Service Providers Association of Ghana have asked the political actors to stay away from National Health Insurance Scheme to enable the appointed executives and other technocrats to prudently manage the affairs of the Scheme.
The group said It is very sad for a Minister of State to openly make an emphatic pronouncement that the NHIS owe the providers only three months and therefore respectfully advise that anybody who wants to make any public pronouncement should confer from the NHIS to ascertain the true indebtedness of National Health Insurance Scheme to the providers to avoid creating needless tension between the providers and the pharmaceutical services providers.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra, on Monday, 17 February 2020, Executive Director of Health Insurance Service Providers Association of Ghana Frank Torblu said this pronouncement has created a situation for the Chamber of Pharmacy to cut the supply of medicine and other medical consumables to our member hospitals, clinics, and maternity homes nationwide.
He added that the technocrats on the job can confirm that the Scheme owes the providers an average of nine months and every necessary effort is being made to pay the amount involved.
“The core mandate of NHIA is to pay claims but this has been defeated by the consistent issue of government’s inability to adequately fund the NHIS for onward reimbursement to health service providers to enable them to provide quality healthcare services to the people of Ghana, he said.”
“To clarify this point, NHIS owe service providers between 9 (nine) to 14 (fourteen) months which covers arrears from 2018 for some providers and 2019 for others. This is unacceptable because the health sector is regarded as an essential service and a key component for socio-economic development.”
Source: mybrytfmonline/Kofi Atakora
