The Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH) has called on the National Health Insurance Authority(NHIA) to fulfil its promise of settling arrears owed various hospitals.
A press statement issued by PSGH indicated that “service providers under the NHIS have suffered for far too long, and this is having a serious negative impact on pharmaceutical society”
[contextly_sidebar id=”XDTExpDqepUBLy4Xy86h83iUbnkyfgLz”]The NHIA as of 2014 owed various health providers about 456.4 million.
The PSGH maintained that the NHIA has on several ocassions failed to fulfill its promise of redeeming indebtedness to these health providers.
Many criticised government for failing to settle the arrears however the Minister of Finance, Mr. Terkper rejected accusations that his outfit was to be blamed for the indebtedness to hospitals and other service providers.
He told Parliament in March that statutory payments including arrears of 2013 and 2014 amounting to a little over 1 billion cedis had been released to the NHIA.
The Pharmaceutical Society said though the NHIA promised to settle the outstanding arrears by the end of March, it had not taken any action to do so.
Service providers worried
Various service providers in both public and private institutions have rasied concerns about the situation.
The situation, according to the PSGH has in some cases led to the withdrawal of services to insured clients or out of pocket payments.
The PSGH believes the the development of allowed to continue will “defeat the performance of the National Health Insurance Authorirty and the National Health Insurance Scheme”
Effect of delays on Pharmaceutical sector
The PSGH said the pharmaceutical sector is faced with cash flow challenges and are unable to meet their financial obligations as a result of the development.
“Pharmaceutical companies are defaulting in loan repayments to their bankers and some have had their assets and collateral seized by their banks,”it said.
The PSGH said they have now “resorted to borrowing from the secondary financial institutions at a very high interest rates of between 6 and 8 percent per month to sustain their business operations”
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By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana