Delays in payment of claims affect Presbyterian Hospital
Delays in reimbursement of claims by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) may force the Presbyterian Hospital at Donkorkrom in the Kwahu Afram Plains North District in the Eastern Region to stop attending to holders of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards.
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About 98 per cent of clients of the hospital are NHIS card holders and the hospital has to rely on the income from the two per cent to run the facility.
As of August 2016, the hospital is yet to receive reimbursement of its claims from December 2015 to July 2016.
The General Manager of the hospital, Mr Kweku Fianko Gyan, told the Daily Graphic that work at the hospital was virtually grounding to a halt.
Impact on hospital
He expressed the hope that the NHIA would honour its side of the bargain to prevent the facility from looking at the option of refusing such card holders the services of the hospital.
“But when the time comes for us to get there, we will advise ourselves, but as the system is, it is not helping us.
“In actual fact, we don’t want to go there because we know the economic status of the people within the catchment area we are serving. So, we will wish that we will not get there. We have done it before and it was not helpful,” he said.
Mr Gyan explained that sometimes, the hospital had to fall on its fund for the poor and needy to support some of those within the two per cent non-bearers of NHIS cards to buy their medicines and even to get them food to eat.
“So, we don’t want to go there. But if we are pushed beyond limit, we will have to look at other alternatives in order to survive. As I explained earlier, we have done it before but it did not help the community,” he added.
He was confident that the NHIS would not push the facility to that limit, explaining, “but as the situation stands, if we are not careful, we may have no option sooner than later to look at options to keep us going. That can be detrimental, I must admit.”
Internally generated funds
Touching on internally generated funds, Mr Gyan said the facility relied on them for the payment of salaries of workers whose names were yet to be on the mechanised payroll as well as fuelling the generator for the facility anytime there was power outage.
He said as a result of the delay in the reimbursement, the facility was owing its debtors.
