The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has suspended yet another health facility from providing service to NHIS clients, this time, indefinitely.
The facility, Bernice Clinic, is located in Tema.
The NHIA tweeted via its twitter handle on Thursday that “NHIA indefinitely suspends Bernice Clinic in Tema from providing service to NHIS subscribers.”
Previous messages on the same social media platform suggested the NHIA was taking steps to ensure its service providers adhere to standards.
One of the tweet revealed the intention of the NHIA: “The overall goal of NHIS’ accreditation is to ascertain that healthcare facilities are able to provide quality & safe healthcare services.”
This is the fifth facility the NHIA has sanctioned in the last month citing various breach of standards.
Communications Manager of the NHIA, Selorm Adonoo, has in previous engagements stated that “service providers depend heavily on the NHIS for their internally-generated funds as NHIA figures show that about 85% of revenue generated by all its accredited facilities come from the NHIS and therefore it is only right that basic standards are upheld.”
The NHIA has asserted that the unavailability of professional and requisite staff at various accredited facilities and the absence of other basic requirements necessary to the running of a health facility, will not be tolerated.
The Authority has also stated that it has instituted quality assurance and clinical audit systems and what the Authority calls ‘post-accreditation monitoring’ to ensure that facilities operating under the scheme maintain a certain level of quality standards.
Some subscribers have complained that some clinics and facilities still demand money from them even though they [subscribers] present their cards at point of service delivery.
The NHIA has maintained that it is illegal to exact co-payments from subscribers.
Last month, the NGO, Universal Access to Healthcare Campaign (UAHC) commended the regulator for standing up against poor standards and ensuring the interest of the subscriber is protected, when three facilities were suspended for various offences.
Click on link to read the suspension statement from the NHIA
Bernice Clinic suspended – NHIA
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @osamidan