Mr George Oppong-Dankwah, Bono East Regional Director for the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has assured the public of stringent measures to end illegal charges demanded from clients by some health facilities. He noted that such bills to the client over the years have affected the smooth running of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and have crushed its intended purpose. Mr Oppong-Dankwah announced that co-payments committees have been set up by the Authority throughout the district and regional capitals to monitor and supervise the billing system in the insurance schemes at the various facilities nationwide to stop the practice. Mr Opong-Dankwah gave the assurance on Thursday at the 2023 Regional third quarter review meeting to commemorate the NHIA 20-year anniversary at Techiman. He noted that the measure was yielding positive results and added that the Authority had set up desks in all the health facilities for consistency in the monitoring and supervision of the billing systems done in operational facilities. Touching on performance, Mr Oppong-Dankwah disclosed that the region was able to achieve about 80 per cent of the target from January to September 2023 as against the same period last year. He said the decline in performance was caused by unexpected factors including natural disasters and stated that the NHIA was committed to ensuring quality health delivery in the region and the country at large since health was the backbone of human resources. Mr Oppong-Dankwah said poor network had been a challenge in sending reports on time, delay in receiving weekly membership reports and non-submission of monthly co-payment reports by district offices but encouraged the staff to show commitment to help build a stronger scheme together.
Source: Ghana News Agency