The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) is reviewing its medicines list and tariffs to reflect the present economic situation of the country.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of NHIA, Dr Dacosta Aboagye, this is among measures adopted to deal with the challenge of illegal payments, popularly known as ‘copayments’, charged to clients of the insurance scheme.
Speaking to JoyNews, he said the NHIIA paid an average of GH₵180 million monthly as claims to help facilities in March 2024.
The scheme made this payment to ensure servicing of its debt stays within the 90-day window for the payment of vetted debt.
However, reports of illegal charges at some health facilities persist despite improvements in payment made to the health facilities.
On the back of this, Dr Aboagye stated that the appropriate sanctions will be applied following the rollout of incentives including the review of the tariffs.
“In fact, it is actually not right that after the NHIA over the last year has made a commitment to pay the lower level tier up to December and the upper tier up to October, facilities are still charging our members, this is not right.
“We are currently reviewing our tariffs to make sure that it commensurate with the increasing prices. Once we do that, no facilities will have the moral right to charge any of our members in the benefit package that we have provided. Any provider who will go contrary to the agreed principles will be sanctioned,” he added.
Dr Da-costa Aboagye stressed that the needed systems will be instituted to automatically adjust tariffs to reflect economic changes.
“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.
The NHIA is embarking on a long-term cost-saving agenda with the procurement of Ghana Cards for its 6.3 million users aged six to fourteen years.
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 emphasised.
Meanwhile, a new office has been constructed at Kumawu to serve the needs of subscribers in the catchment and help improve service delivery.