The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) is reviewing its medicines list and tariffs to reflect the present economic situation of the country.
This is among measures being adopted to deal with the challenge of illegal payments, popularly known as ‘copayments’, charged to clients of the insurance scheme.
Chief Executive Officer of the NHIA, Dr. Da-costa Aboagye, says the needed systems will be instituted for automatic adjustment of tariffs to reflect changes in the economy.
“I want to put an end to the ‘Copayment’ or illegal charges at the health provider sites that is making the scheme unpopular. The Medicines list and tariff is currently being reviewed to reflect the economic and epidemiological trends. I intend to put systems in place for the automatic adjustment of the tariff to reflect any economic changes”, he said.
According to the NHIA, an average of 180 million cedis is paid monthly as claims to health facilities.
In March 2024, the scheme made this payment to ensure servicing of its debts stays within the 90-day window for the payment of vetted debts.
Chief Executive Officer of NHIA, Dr. Da-costa Aboagye, explains the appropriate sanctions will be applied following the roll out of incentives including the review of tariffs.
“With all these incentives, health providers must not charge our members on services and medicines that the NHIA is paying for. Any provider who go contrary to the agreed principles would be sanctioned”, he added.
The NHIA is on a long-term cost saving agenda with the procurement of Ghana Cards for its 6.3 million users aged six to fourteen years.
For this reason, the target age group will be issued the national identification card, instead of the NHIA printing cards for the group.
“We want to collaborate with the National Identification Authority (NIA) to issue Ghanacard for persons within age 6 to 14 years. This card would be integrated with the NHIS member details so the merged or linked Ghanacard is used to access health care. This would save the nation, the cost of printing NHIS as well as Ghanacard”, he emphasized.
Meanwhile, a new office has been constructed at Kumawu to serve the needs of subscribers in the catchment.
This is expected to help improve service delivery to the public.
