Dr. Samuel AnnorN
The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has suggested a 20 per cent upward adjustment in the tariff for service providers under the scheme.
The suggestion, which was made at a stakeholder meeting organised by the NHIA for service providers, comes three years after the last adjustment was made.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr. Samuel Annor, who spoke with the media, observed that the proposal was subject to negotiations with service providers and subsequent approval by the Ministry of Health (MoH).
“We believe that the 20 per cent is workable within our budget. But we have to get the necessary approval from them (service providers),” Dr. Annor said.
He added that the review is supposed to happen yearly, “so if it doesn’t happen, the onus is not only on the NHIS; the health providers can call us about it because we are all working together in the interest of patients. If we all sit quietly, then it means we are all happy.”
According to some of the service providers, they were seeking between a 25 and 50 per cent increment to reflect market realities.
The Deputy Chief Executive of the NHIA in-charge of Operations, Dr. Lydia Dsane-Selby, said there are currently more than 4,300 service providers on the NHIS’ list, out of which community-based health planning services (CHPS) compounds constitute the majority; 2,320 facilities.
She indicated that the e-renewal system of the NHIA, which was launched less than a month ago, is already seeing great utilisation by health facilities and NHIS card bearers.
“Within less than a month of launching the platform, 75,000 people are renewing their cards every week on the platform and over 3,800 are being authenticated daily,” Dr. Dsane-Selby stated.
She, however, described as worrying a trend in which 99 per cent of claims received by the authority were nine months older, with accompanying letters to explain the delays also coming in late.
This, she disclosed, delayed the release of funds to the service providers and, therefore, called on all stakeholders to ensure swift reimbursement of the health facilities.
Meanwhile, government has stated that the proposed 20 per cent upward adjustment in NHIS tariff is a bit hasty, as negotiations are still ongoing to arrive at the right increment that the service providers deserve.
Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said, “A committee has been set up to examine what service providers deserve and negotiations are still ongoing … We need to go through processes and work out numbers and then escalate to the highest level before we can put a figure to it.”
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri