From left: Yaa Pokuaa Baiden (left), Deputy CEO, Administration & HR–NHIS, Prof. Yaw Adu Gyamfi (middle) and Dr. Lydia Baaba Dsane-Selby
Beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) will from tomorrow be able to renew their cards at the comfort of their homes and workplaces without going to any district office through the NHIS mobile renewal service.
The mobile membership renewal and authentication service which will be launched by President Akufo-Addo to help streamline the operational difficulties of the scheme.
Thus, the ordeal of people queuing and sometimes sleeping at the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) offices in order to get their expired card will come to an end as beneficiaries can access the service through short-code *929# for MTN, Vodafone and Airtel-Tigo after the launch.
The service which will be accessible in every part of the country where network is available will also help the NHIA verify claims and authenticate people who visit health centres as registered members of the scheme.
Members who access the service will be able to check when their policy will expire, how to renew their policy to be done by entering their NHIA card or Ghana card number and subsequently pay through mobile money and other digital payment systems.
The service will also enable them to check their benefit package and medicine list.
The authority is partnering with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) impact insurance programme funded by Afd for digital renewal of cards.
The new renewal innovation when commenced, NHIA revealed, will send about 22 million messages to its clients on a daily basis.
At a stakeholder meeting with journalists in Accra, Deputy Chief Executive in-charge of Operations at the NHIA, Dr. Lydia Baaba Dsane-Selby, said currently 12 million people are active out of the more than 18 million people who were registered on the NHIS and thus, the online service would encourage all Ghanaians to register and become active.
She added that “soon those with the National ID card but without NHIA registration would be able to use their National ID and mobile phone to register to become an NHIA member without going to the district office.”
Moving forward, Dr. Dsane-Selby said, “The authority will use the system to inform NHIS members how much money a hospital had claimed in their name.”
“But we need to get all healthcare providers to embrace the system since it acts as a check and balance to the scheme. Journalists must also help support the innovation by educating the public and acting as watchdogs on public expenditure,” she added.
Dr. Dsane-Selby also indicated that the introduction of the electronic will not only improve services but also save the authority money it would have used for the manual service.
A representative from the International Labour Organisation’s Impact Insurance Facility, Ms. Lisa Morgan, expressed the organisation’s pleasure in collaborating with the NHIS to make for easy access to the NHIS.
She said the service would help reduce about 12 hours the time NHIS members spend in various districts attempting to renew their policy.
Board Chairman of the NHIA, Prof. Yaw Adu-Gyamfi, who was present at the meeting, asked Ghanaians to eschew politicisation of the scheme, adding that the authority has no political colours.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri