We’ll continue to provide service for all -Cape Coast Hospital assures patients
The Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (CCTH) in the Central Region has assured the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card holders that it will continue to provide them with the usual quality services.
It said although it made a ‘distress call’ to the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) for payments to be urgently effected, it had no plans to suspend its services to the NHIS card holders following the non-payment of health insurance claims to the hospital.
In a letter dated March 28, and signed by the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of CCTH, Mr Frederick Nyankah, the management of the hospital said it would continue to render services to its clients.
“The management of CCTH wishes to place on record that it has never threatened to stop the provision of care to the public as a result of the outstanding claims under reference.
“It is a normal practice within service delivery agencies of the Ministry of Health (MoH) to periodically send a reminder to the NHIA on outstanding claims owed to these facilities,” the statement added.
The management of the hospital reiterated that it had the numerous members of the public and patients, in particular, at heart and would not gamble with their lives.
Publication
In its publication of Thursday, March 28, the Daily Graphic carried a story that said the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) owed the CCTH GH¢6.175 million for services the facility rendered to patients under the NHIS.
The publication said “the dire situation has compelled the Chief Executive Officer of the CCTH, Dr Eric Kofi Ngyedu, to send a distress letter to the Chief Executive of the NHIA for payment to be effected immediately to enable the facility to provide services to NHIS cardholders.”
Letter
The letter dated March 11, 2019, with the heading: “Distress Call for The Payment of Claims” and signed by Dr Ngyedu, a copy of which was available to the Daily Graphic, said, inter alia: “As of the close of the year, our indebtedness for supplies amounted to GH¢5.85 million.
Our inability to secure the needed supplies, you will agree with us, will ultimately affect the delivery of quality health service, a goal we are all aiming to achieve.
“The Cape Coast Teaching Hospital wishes to make a distress call for the payment of its claims following financial difficulties that it is going through.”
The letter continued that “the long delay in the payment of claims seriously affects cash flow and operations of the hospital.”
“The continuous retention of 10 per cent of claims submitted, when payments are made, continues to affect our ability to recover the cost of procuring supplies, and has further added to our inability to fully meet our commitment to our suppliers.”
The letter alluded that as of the close of last year, an amount of GH¢3.189 million had accumulated by way of the 10 per cent retentions since October 2014.