NHIA urged to collaborate with private sector
A private medical practitioner, Dr Wisdom Amegbletor, has proposed collaboration between the private sector and the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to establish the scheme in the remotest parts of the country where it is hardly operational.
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The role of the NHIA, he explained, should involve advertising remote communities or villages where healthcare was not readily available and inviting private healthcare providers to apply for accreditation to provide services there.
The NHIA, he said, would then ensure that the people in the community were covered by the (NHIS).
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Dr Amegbletor expressed the view that such an initiative would help extend healthcare coverage to remote and underserved communities.
“ It would also help reduce the dangers people are exposed to as they travel long distances to towns where there are health facilities and also reduce medical complications that may arise as a result of delays in getting to health centres,” he said.
He added that in addition to the benefits that would accrue to residents of villages where this system would be operational, the private health providers would also be assured of guaranteed patronage and reimbursement for what is genuinely due them.
“ Any fears or apprehensions that entrepreneurs or medical practitioners may harbour in siting health facilities in remote villages will be allayed because of the direct involvement of the health insurance authority,” he explained.
He said for a start, the government could lease its abandoned buildings in such remote areas to private healthcare providers to renovate and use, adding that, that would contribute to making the initiative attractive, sustainable and viable.
Dr Amegbletor, who owns the New Crystal Health Services, a company which operates five medical institutions in the Tema and Ashaiman areas, added that the work that would be carried out by the private healthcare providers should not be confused with that of the private mutual health insurance schemes since they would be serving the underprivileged.
One major challenge that all hospitals, which operate the insurance scheme face, is the delayed payments of claims by the health insurance authority. Some facilities have suffered this fate to the point where they faced imminent collapse.
Asked whether this would not defeat the objective of his proposal, Dr Amegbletor said the hospitals should be able to establish a balance between treating both the insured and the un-insured clients but added that such facilities in remote areas could be considered for prompt claims payment.
Dr Amegbletor’s proposal comes closely on the heels of an earlier call he made to government to set up a financing scheme that entrepreneurs and medical practitioners could access solely for setting up medical facilities and expanding existing ones.
He said both proposals, if implemented, would contribute significantly to solving the problem of unwillingness of healthcare professionals to go to or accept postings to remote areas since they would own these facilities.
But more importantly, he added, it would increase accessibility to healthcare across the country.
By Mark-Anthony Vinorkor/Daily Graphic/Ghana