Dr. Samuel Annor
The Chief Executive of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr. Samuel Annor, has reportedly left office after two years of service to the country.
Although the reason for his resignation is unknown, DAILY GUIDE’s checks suggest it was due to his age.
Last month, Dr. Annor’s name was listed among some eight Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) heading some government institutions who were purported to been ordered to go on retirement by March 2019.
It’s believed that the eight CEOs have passed the mandatory retirement age of 60, hence the directive for them to hand over to their deputies in the meantime.
The Public Service Act mandates public officers to retire from public service after attaining the age of 60.
The Act, however, allows for an extension of about five years at the prerogative of the president.
The seven others include the CEO of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, 65 years, Eugene Ofosuhene, 67 years – Controller and Accountant General, Kofi Jumah, 68 years – CEO of Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation (GIHOC), Isaac Osei, 67 years – CEO of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Kwame Owusu, 67 years – CEO of Ghana Maritime Authority, Anthony Nsiah-Asare, 65 years – Director General of the Ghana Health Service, K. K Sarpong, 65 years – CEO of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).
Dr. Annor, who was appointed by President Akufo-Addo, assumed office in March, 2017 at a time the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Ghana’s major social intervention programme was on the verge of collapse due to debts owed to providers of healthcare services by the NDC administration.
Under Dr. Annor’s two-year tenure, management successfully negotiated unprecedented in the history of the NHIA pay rises for staff across board in 2017 and 2018 respectively and instituted new programmes at both operational and strategic levels designed to enhance HR processes by converting all staff data into electronic format to help improve efficiency.
The initiative has helped to address staff concerns regarding notch movement in a fair and transparent manner.
He leaves behind a scheme with over 10 million active members, and 4,340 NHIS credentialed facilities across the regions of Ghana.
His administration was very instrumental in the clearing of the huge backlog of debts owed providers to the tune of GHC1.2 billion and introducing the innovative Mobile Renewal Service; a phone based service launched in December, 2018 that allows members and providers conveniently to renew and authenticate their membership with the aid of a mobile phone.
Dr. Annor’s administration sought to resolve the challenges through a model he termed “Re-structuring of the NHIS on Four (4) Pillars.”
The four pillars centered on fully implementing an Electronic Claims management system to improve efficiency and reduce fraud, improving compliance in clinical and internal audits to mitigate fraud, amending the NHIS Law to make crime against the Scheme more punitive and to act as a deterrent to potential fraudsters and finally re-designing the financing model of the Scheme to make it more sustainable.
The four-pillar approach was endorsed by government which in turn responded by making changes to the NHIS Levy which is anticipated to generate an additional GHC600 million to GHC800 million annually to shore up the scheme’s finances.
Until his appointment, Dr. Annor was a consultant obstetrician/gynecologist and a partner of Lister Hospital, which is the foremost international private hospital.
He was also the first Board Chairman of Ghana Airport Company Limited in 2007.
The selection process for an appropriate firm to partner the NHIA to implement the Electronic Claims Management is currently underway, and will be completed hopefully within the first quarter of 2019.
Clinical audits increased over the last two years and have produced some outstanding outcomes, resulting in deductions from providers.
The Legal Directorate of the NHIA has been expanded with the recruitment of six lawyers, a significant increase from the hitherto one lawyer in the organization.
The Attorney General has provided additional training to the lawyers and now granted the NHIA the much-needed fiat to make prosecutions independently possible.
This will make prosecutions swift and reduce the cost associated with protracted cases.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri