The proportion of Ghana’s population with active National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) membership has increased from 12,283,457 (40.6%) to 16,310,425 (52.6%) between 2016 and 2020.
Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, revealed this to the media in Accra on Wednesday, June 16, 2021.
According to him, “This increment can be attributed to the introduction of the mobile renewal registration
• NHIS claims arrears have been reduced from 12 months to 3months over the last four years. We will urge credentialed providers to submit their claims within the stipulated period to enable us work to reduce the arrears even further.
Who is covered?
Addressing journalists at the Information Ministry, he said
“Indigent active members 1,350,950 = 8.28% of active members; Informal sector 5,880,276 = 36% of active members (was 29%)
• Under 18 yrs 6,793,334 = 41.6%”.
What is covered?
He said there were 4,292 providers credentialed in all 16 regions:
• CHPS 55.2%, Health Centers 16.8%, Primary Hospitals 8.2%, Clinics 7.8%
• Ownership – GHS 69.7%, Private 24.2%, Mission 5.3%
• OPD, IPD, Maternal Services, Oral & eye care, Diagnostics & Medicines
• Utilization dropped during Covid to 1.9 million for April May
• Current utilization up to 3 million a month
Payment?
He said an amount of “GHS 486,871,300.85 paid to date this year. Relates to claims of 2020 up to December. Latecomers claims for 2020 are still being paid as we prepare to pay January 2021
• Equals GHS 97 million a month for the first 5 months.”
Ownership payments
He gave the breakdown of payment as follows:
▪ GHS 246 m = 50.5%
▪ Private 141 m = 28.9%
▪ Mission 93m = 19.24%
▪ Quasi-public = 1.3%
He said there were membership renewal using mobile technology *929# and Authentication at provider sites using mobile technology.
He said there were also Self-linkage to Ghana Card using mobile technology – access healthcare service with national ID 89,000.
By Melvin Tarlue