Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye
The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) is adopting a Value-Based Care (VBC) system to help address challenges in healthcare delivery in the country.
According to the NHIA, when successfully implemented, the VBC will provide citizens with quality and equitable access to basic healthcare.
The VBC system will also make provision for investing in preventive interventions to improve the health of the population.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NHIA, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye, disclosed this at the opening of a 5-day workshop organized by PharmAccess Foundation in partnership with ‘Leapfrog to Value’ and the Christian Health Association of Ghana.
He said “the VBC will tell you where to push your resources, so that you have the best outcome, and that is what we want to do “.
Dr. Okoe Boye added that the VBC will be a component of the National Health Insurance Scheme’s (NHIS’s) quality strategy to reform how healthcare is delivered and paid for.
He added that the NHIA has in recent years deployed digital technologies including the mobile NHIS renewal system to enhance the provision of healthcare in Ghana.
“The scheme has also introduced the digital claims submission dubbed ‘CLAIM-IT’ application, which helps providers to submit their claims without hassle”, he added.
Dr. Okoe Boye said the digitalization of the processes has enabled the NHIA to analyze and visualize its data to aid decision-making for improving the sustainability of the scheme.
“The digitalized processes allow us to consolidate all the information we have about Ghanaians who attend hospitals,” he said.
According to him, data analytics, and digitalization of the NHIA system will be key to the implementation of Value-Based Care.
Executive Director of the Christian Health Association of Ghana, (CHAG) Dr. Peter Yeboah said the current challenges in health insurance administration have magnified the need for VBC.
The Operations Manager at PharmAccess Foundation in Ghana, Dr. Gifty Sunkwa-Mills, said the Value-Based Care model, when implemented, will provide transparency for providers into outcomes and cost data.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi