By Regina
Benneh, GNA
Abesim, July 18, GNA – The Brong-Ahafo
Regional Office of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has appealed
to religious leaders and all stakeholders to help in the fight against co-payment
and extortions at the various hospitals in the Region and the nation in
general.
Mr. George Oppong Danquah, the acting
Regional Operations Manager, made the appeal when the Regional Operations
Team of the Authority paid a courtesy call on the Most Reverend Matthew
Kwasi Gyamfi, Catholic Bishop of Sunyani at the Diocesan Secretariat, on
Thursday at Abesim, near Sunyani.
The visit was to commend Bishop Gyamfi for
role of the Catholic Church and its immense contributions towards the
establishment of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and health delivery
services in the Region.
It was also to brief the Bishop on the
policies and activities of the Authority to help find alternative sources of
funding to enhance the NHIS’s finances.
He stressed that co-payment introduced by
some health care providers to collect money illegally from patients
and later billed the NHIA for payment could lead to the collapse of
the Scheme.
Mr Danquah cautioned that any health
provider found engaging in co-payment or any other act contrary to the
rules and regulations governing the Scheme would be accordingly dealt with by
law, because such acts affected the effective health delivery services in
the Region and would destroy the purpose of the Insurance Scheme.
He assured that the NHIA was making strenuous
efforts to overcome the challenges facing it to pay all arrears to make the Scheme
financially sustainable and called on the Providers to dialogue with the managers
of the Scheme rather than frustrate the poor patients who visited the
facilities.
Most Rev. Gyamfi thanked the Team for the visit
and assured them of the Church’s determination to make the NHIS work once again
and also pleaded with the Authority to expedite payment schedules, since that
was the reason why some of the hospitals engaged in co- payment and other
harmful behaviours.
He appealed to the Ministry of
Health and their agencies-HEFRA and NHIA to upgrade all the Catholic
health facilities in the Region from the primary health facilities to secondary
ones, since they all had qualified personnel and equipment and could therefore
deliver efficient and quality health services.
Most Rev Gyamfi implored government to
reconsider the policy where anti-snake medicines could not be administered at
the Community Health and Planning Services (CHPS) Compounds mainly established
to serve the rural communities.
Earlier, the team which included Messrs
Alexander Fordjour and Yaw Ackah Blay, both senior Monitoring and Evaluation
Officers interacted with some patients at the Sunyani Municipal and Regional
Hospitals and entreated them to report co-payment and
other extortions by the health providers to help sustain the
Scheme.
GNA