General News of Monday, 3 July 2017
Source: Myjoyonline.com
2017-07-03
File Photo
The new Chief Executive Officer of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has revealed that the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) owes the hospital about GHC14 million.
Dr Felix Anyah says though management is in talks with the NHIA to retrieve the amount, they intend to employ innovative ways to generate funds for various projects.
According to him, the last time the hospital received any payment from the NHIA was in July 2016.
Speaking in an interview with JoyNews’ Adelaide Arthur in an exclusive interview, the Korle Bu CEO said they are fully aware of the challenges the NHIA is facing.
“We know the issues that the NHIS is facing, we will be talking to them but I think that what we will do in terms of business practice is to look at alternative arrears, for example, medical tourism that is our area,” he said.
The Korle Bu CEO added that “there are four layers by which we get our revenue, the NHIS, the out of pocket and private people but the biggest that we have to concentrate on are the private people who come to pay.”
He noted that the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital is a special hospital that has facilities that have a ready market in some African countries like Nigeria, Togo and Benin.
Dr Anyah believes with Ghana’s prime location, it should have been the number referral destination, but that is not the case.
“We have so many heart patients in Britain, Canada and the rest. If you look at Cardio centre, [countries like] Cuba, India, Thailand, we have are the same charges… there are so many people who will like to come” to Korle Bu for medical care but that market is not tapped.
To be able to tap into that market, Dr Anyah said, “we have to improve our systems, build our human resource and we should be able to market ourself to be able to bring these people in.”
