Health service providers will be paid this year - Minister
The Minister of Health (MOH), Mr Kwaku Agyemang Manu, has stated that health service providers under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) will be paid their claims this year as part of efforts to sustain the scheme.
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He said the scheme remained one of the country’s major interventions at improving access to health care, for which reason efforts would be made to put it back on track.
Ceremony
Mr Manu was speaking at a ceremony to introduce the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the National Health insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr Samuel Yaw Annor, to the staff of the authority in Accra last Monday.
The minister pledged to work closely with the CEO to deliver on the President’s promise to make the scheme more viable.
“The NHIS remains the best option we have devised to ensure that as many Ghanaians as possible have access to quality health care in our clinics and hospitals. The scheme is not in a good state, many service providers who are owed money are threatening to stop offering services to the most vulnerable in society.
“Therefore, this year, the ministry and the NHIA will work together to pay the service providers,” the minister assured.
Commitment
According to Mr Manu, President Akufo-Addo had a keen interest in consolidating the NHIS to provide quality health care to Ghanaians as indicated during the electioneering.
“We have not seriously started implementing the new budget, but I believe by the time Parliament rises, they might have approved the entire budget and the finance minister will release monies to the scheme to enable it to pay the providers. They may not be able to get 100 per cent of arrears owed them, but at least every month, providers will be paid in order to deliver quality health care to the subscriber,” he stated.
Mr Manu mentioned that his outfit was also in consultation with other agencies to come up with initiatives that could help sustain the scheme for the benefit of all.
Appreciation
The new CEO expressed appreciation to President Akufo-Addo for the confidence reposed in him and pledged to work hard to sustain the scheme.
“No one is happy with the services of the NHIA, so we need to do individual and collective audit to know why people are not happy. We need to be transparent, and I believe together, we would move forward,” he stated.
Dr Annor said serious measures were needed to address issues confronting the NHIA to make it better.
“If it is corruption, we have to uproot it, if the issue is about funds, we have to correct it, if it is our service providers who we cannot control, we need to find out, if it is the laws that have to change to make it more serious, we need to do that,” he added.
He concluded by saying measures would be put in place to sanction service providers and staff who indulged in corruption.