The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr Da-costa Aboagye on Wednesday together with the current and former Board Chairmen of NHIA as well as traditional authorities at Kumawu commissioned an ultra modern district office complex for the people in the Sekyere Kumawu enclave.

Hitherto to the commissioning, the people in the Sekyere Kumawu District were travelling to Effiduase, an adjoining district to access services from the Scheme Office.

Addressing the people in his native town, including staff of NHIA, traditional leaders and other stakeholders, Dr Aboagye said the commissioning of the Kumawu complex was only one of the numerous projects the Authority has tabled to roll out to increase access and service to the people.

“This is just but one of the numerous projects in the Ashanti Region and Kumawu to be specific. This has come in a better time to complement our completed District Hospital under the Government’s Agenda 111”, the CEO stated.

Vision:

The CEO took the opportunity to outline his vision including the proposal that basic checks of members on the scheme are carried out once every year to know their health status

He noted by this, members would be prompted with a text message so they could visit a health facility to do the checks.

This, he noted would lead to early detection and treatment of diseases, reduce medical claims on catastrophic disease, boost membership since members would be made to renew or register new for a continuous benefit of the NHIS Benefit Package and ultimately help achieve UHC Goals by the year 2030.

Dr Da-Costa stressed his desire to put an end to the ‘Copayment” or illegal charges at the health provider sites that is making the scheme unpopular.

“The NHIA has tremendously improved Claims Payment and pays an average claims of GHS180 Million a month on regular basis. The Medicines list and tariff is currently being reviewed to reflect the economic and epidemiological trends. I intend to put systems in place for the automatic adjustment of the tariff to reflect any economic changes. With all these incentives, health providers must not charge our members on services and medicines that the NHIA is paying for. Any provider who go contrary to the agreed principles would be sanctioned”, the CEO cautioned.

Other Initiatives:

The CEO said under the digitilization agenda of the government, the NHIA was mandated to have One Card and that is the Ghanacard.

However, he said some of the age groups, that is below 15 years have no Ghanacard but NHIS Cards are printed for them.

To solve this, Dr Da-costa stated that his outfit want to collaborate with the National Identification Authority(NIA) to issue Ghanacard for persons within age 6 to 14 years.

“This card would be integrated with the NHIS member details so the merged or linked Ghanacard is used to access health care. This wouls save the nation, the cost of printing NHIS as well as Ghanacard. The database could serve several purpose for the NHIA, since we could integrate the vulnerable categories, being, LEAP, Indigents per the data sharing MoU with the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection for a seamless enrolment and reporting”, the CEO intimated.

Promise:

The CEO promised to institute a system where non-Ghanaians could be enrolled unto the NHIS to enjoy the Benefit Package whenever they are in Ghana.

Additionally, he noted to immediately consider Life Insurance for all Staff of the NHIA, adding that this vision with the approval of my supportive Board of Governors would go a long way to improve the NHIS.

Omanhene:

Barima Sarfo Tweneboah Kodua, Paramount Chief of Kumawu thanked the CEO and Board Members including Professor Yaw Adu Gyamfi, the immediate past Board Chairman for the construction and commissioning of the Sekyere Kumawu District.

He asked the NHIA staff posted to work to ensure that they maintain the facility and make optimum use of same.

Board Chairman:

Dr Ernest Puni Kwarko, Board Chairman of the NHIA thanked the Chiefs and people of Kumawu especially the Queen Mother for providing space and other support services to ensure the construction of the district office.

He asked the people to take advantage of the facility and access services offered by the Scheme.

Story By Michael Ofosu-Afriyie,

Kumasi.