A survey by CDD indicates that donor funding, which represents 70 to 80 percent of preventive and public health services, has dwindled over the years.

[contextly_sidebar id=”k2tFEytW1lefczbaAS0ztQuM1qyfgWTV”]Meanwhile, a large section of Ghanaians have opposed proposals to increase the National Health Insurance levy by 1 percent.

The CDD is therefore advocating for prudent financial mobilization and expenditure to save the healthcare system in Ghana.

A Research Fellow with the CDD, Dr. Kojo Asante, voiced these concerns to Citi News on the sidelines of a round-table discussion on resource allocation and utilization in Accra.

“The whole reason why we had the NHIS was to move from cash and carry but once you have the NHIS struggling to pay its service providers, then they have to pay out of the pocket and the trend is that, for a period, we were seeing an increase in out of pocket payments because the NHIS was under such dire stress.”

“We have to find a solution to making the NHIS work if we want to be able to provide healthcare, and that is why it is critical that it has to be replaced and maintained. We need to look at the amount we put into it,” he said.

Health insurance service providers have notably been complained about arrears owed by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).

The Health Insurance Service Providers Association of Ghana in February 2018 threatened to return to the cash and carry system if arrears owed its members by the NHIA were not paid.

The Association said most of its members were owed about 20 months of claims.

Collaborating with private sector

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Private Health Insurance Association, Ronald Oppong Adom, believes the mutual collaboration between the public health sector and his outfit will augur well for the National Health Insurance Scheme.

He argued that though the 12 registered private insurance companies in Ghana only have 200,000 registered Ghanaians, it generates revenue of about GHc 200,000 million hence its importance.

“For the 200,000 and more that we are seeking to bring into our fold, once we collect a premium, the person is automatically covered on the NHIS for primary health care and we will in turn, take up the secondary and tertiary healthcare costs.”

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By: Caleb Kudah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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This is contrary to the widespread reports that private health service providers operating in the country were the ones solely engaged in such dubious acts.

The Northern Regional Manager of the NHIA, Alhaji Hudu Iddrisu, brought this to the fore at the 2017 end of year performance review meeting held in Tamale.

“Surprisingly, most of the facilities that are involved in these activities happen to be those owned by the state. Public health facilities put up and paid by the government.”

“All these negative practices create the impression that the NHIS has not created the financial access to the healthcare as it is supposed to do.”

Alhaji Iddrisu further stated that, “We are aware of all the happenings in some of the facilities accredited by the Authority to provide services to our members. You can call it top-up, co-payments, or any other name.”

According the outraged NHIA Boss, the ongoing illegality could cause public discontent for the Scheme and affect its enrollment or renewal rate.

“Medicines found on the NHIA’s list are being sold to gullible NHIS members whilst some of those prescribing deliberately prescribe outside the NHIA’s list to cause card bearers to still buy these medications even though alternatives are on the list that should have been given to them free of charge. Yet these providers who are indulged in this at the end of every month submit claims to the Authority for payments including medicines and the services for which they have already collected monies from our members.”

Alhaji Hudu Iddrisu entreated those corrupt service providers to stop extorting monies from the state for no work done.

Alhaji Hudu Iddrisu said at the end of December 2017, the Authority in the Northern Region raked in Ghc879,609.00 representing 89.7 percent of its annual target.

He commended management and staff in all the district offices saying, “Your wonderful performance, commitment, dedication and sacrifice despite the numerous challenges has brought us this far.”

The annual performance review meeting is key on the operational calendar of the National Health Insurance Authority.

It offers managers the opportunity to review their past performance to enable them restrategize for the years ahead.

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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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This he said would ensure that the Scheme is put on the right footing to deliver quality healthcare to Ghanaians.

[contextly_sidebar id=”mTxL4DrOd6EhcA3vmHbHML3iHd8I6tTz”]“National Health Insurance Scheme was instituted to resolve the issues of families when it comes to access to primary healthcare, and was certain to improve healthcare,” he said.

Making a statement on healthcare as citizens’ right, Dr. Kuganab-Lem indicated that, the NHIS if properly managed would be of immense benefit to the country.

The National Health Insurance Scheme [NHIS], was established under the National Health Insurance Act 2003, Act 650, in 2003, to provide quality healthcare services to Ghanaians.

The National Democratic Congress NDC],in 2017 accused the New Patriotic Party (NPP) of lying its way into power, with exaggerated promises concerning the state of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

The National Organizer of the NDC, Kofi Adams, said the NPP in the health section of its 2016 manifesto, claimed that the previous NDC administration had collapsed the scheme in their eight-years stay in office.

The Scheme has had financial challenges as it owes many service providers millions of cedis. The current government is currently clearing the debts, and is also looking for sustainable ways of funding the Scheme.

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By: Farida Yusif/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Don’t politicize NHIS issues – MP appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to him, imprisoning the perpetrators, regardless of the amounts involved will serve as a deterrent to persons who indulge in such acts.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday Dr. Annor said the current laws that regulate the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) “are weak” thus making it easy for people to loot from the coffers of the Authority.

[contextly_sidebar id=”qL1j8e9vf2L37voUcjxPqK9HtcrVg4QX”]He added that because of the weak laws, persons who are caught stealing the NHIA’s monies are usually sentenced to pay what he described as “peanut” fines by the courts.

“…Human beings are human beings, you don’t put a meat before a dog and tell the dog not to eat the meat, so you have to make sure that you make the rules and regulations so difficult to steal,” he said.

When asked which people steal the NHIA’s funds, Dr. Annor mentioned service providers, internal staff “and everybody who gets the opportunity because the system has not been well disciplined enough.”

“The law is weak; the law treats crime against our health money like any crime. So if somebody steals banana he might as well have stolen GHc20,000 from the NHIA fund – the two of them will be treated the same – because both are crimes and both are punishable by probably about 250 penalty units according to the law.”

“And the judge would have the option to either fine or add some imprisonment or both. And most of the time, after the trial goes on for almost about six or seven years, the persons are just given little fines. For somebody who has committed a crime, that fine is peanut – he will pay and commit the crime again. But as a nation we should be able to say that there should be compulsory imprisonment for whoever commits crimes against our health funds as most nations do,” he added.

The NHIA boss noted that most developed nations do not take their health funds lightly, adding that “if you go anywhere near their health funds you will be in jail, you will not be given a fine and asked to go home.”

Dr. Annor took over the administration of the debt-ridden NHIA some nine months ago.

According to him, the governing New Patriotic Party has so far paid about GHc900 million out of the GHc1.2 billion debt they inherited at the NHIA.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Dr. Annor, among other things, proposed a four-point agenda which, if addressed immediately, he believes could help revamp the health insurance scheme and put it on a better pedestal for growth.

The proposal includes a change in NHIA’s finance model,  making the manual processing of claims electronic, instituting tight quality assurance measures as well as the strengthening of the laws governing the scheme.

Click below for the full interview on the Citi Breakfast Show:

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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According to HISPAG, most of its members are owed about 20 months of claims, a situation that threatens their operations.

[contextly_sidebar id=”5rpX74M6x4syR9pf8z8bgzwjav2MHZgz”]Speaking to Citi News, Public Relations Officer of the Association, Joseph Christian Amoah, the perennial delay in payment of the claims by the NHIA, is seriously undermining quality healthcare service delivery.

“Government should cash out as early as possible to salvage the situation, it can be next month, It can be next two months, it can be next three months, because providers are thinking, and they are taking a decision on a particular move and that move is cash and carry,” he said.

The Association is therefore calling on the government to take action to have the situation fixed as soon as possible, to prevent any future inconveniences.

Chief Executive Officer of the NHIA, Dr. Samuel Annor in 2017, said government was going pay to the National Health Insurance service providers the monies owned its members.

The Authority owes the service providers some GHc1.2 billion covering a 12-month period. Dr. Annor told Citi News that all other arrears will be cleared in due course.

The NHIA has always struggled with the payment of claims, a situation largely blamed on the lack of a sustainable funding approach for the scheme.

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By: Farida Yusif/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post HISPAG threatens to go back to ‘cash and carry’ system appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

It argues that the increment will help to address some of the teething challenges that have for so long bedeviled the Scheme.

[contextly_sidebar id=”wZur3ul65ctgVyNNaeaNsqwGVgpyghJj”]The Scheme under the New Patriotic Party [NPP] administration, has been struggling with a GH¢100 million debt that is negatively affecting its operations.

Last week, some offices of the scheme halted the processing of new cards for interested persons due to a shortage of printing materials.

But the managers of the Scheme say they need to raise enough funding to help them run more efficiently.

In an interview on Eyewitness News on Monday, the Communications Manager of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Barimah Sarpong, said Ghana’s insurance scheme currently fell short of recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), in terms of spending on members of the scheme, noting that failure to raise monies for this purpose may cause the Scheme to collapse.

“Currently, as far as our financial strength can take us, we use about $30 to take care of each member on NHIS, but according to WHO’s guidelines, you need $86 to give each member basic healthcare, so if we are doing about $30 now, then of course there is the need to ensure that we take measures now to put NHIS on a level that it will be financially sustainable for the next 50 years. These are only proposals up for discussion… The parent problem of NHIS is a financial difficulty. Funding gap has been the reason why we are always in the news for non-payment of claims and our members being asked to top up at various health facilities,” he said.

While admitting that the Scheme was currently facing a lot of difficulties in its operation, he urged the public to exercise retraint as some of the challenges including shortage of logistics at the various regional officers will be addressed this week.

ICU to petition Parliament

Meanwhile, the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), has served notice it will petition Parliament to stop the National Health Insurance Authority [NHIA], from increasing the NHIS levy.

The General Secretary of the ICU, Solomon Kotei, told Citi News that, there are other viable revenue generation strategies for the NHIA, and that the Authority should begin by blocking loopholes in its system instead of raising levies.

Highlighting some challenges hampering the NHIA’s efforts at increasing revenue, Mr. Kotei said: “There has been a lot of malfeasance going on at the NHIA, and it’s not been made known to us through investigation. We were informed that a lot of people ran away to some countries. Have they retrieved those monies or it is gone for good? We have people who are benefiting from the NHIA who don’t contribute anything to it. I am referring to people from Cote D’lvoire, Togo, Nigeria and India.”

This is not the NHIA’s first attempt at increasing the levy. In September 2017, the NHIA indicated that, it had made a proposal to the government to levy tobacco and alcohol to fund the scheme.

The Authority had explained that, the proposal was one of the options of finding additional sources of funding to sustain the policy, since the 2.5 percent NHIS levy collected under the Value Added Tax (VAT), and the 2.5 percentage Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributions appear to be adequate.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post NHIS justifies proposal to increase health insurance levy appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to him, a major reason for the sad state of affairs, was the lack of accommodation for staff.

[contextly_sidebar id=”Gg6DifnFkr30OyUe5d3z5jIkmhNjz0vD”]Mr. Segbefia said for most of the projects undertaken, no budgetary allocation was made for the construction of accommodation facilities.

He explained further that, the government had thus decided to find alternative sources of funding to begin the construction of accommodation facilities.

He noted that, while some were completed and had been put to use, others were not operationalized because the previous government did not find money to set up accommodation facilities.

“We take responsibility for it… There was no infrastructure there in the first place so what we did when we realized that was to begin to collate all the CHPS compounds in the country that had not got accommodation or haven’t got equipment because the equipment is also another thing,” he said.

“There are a number of them that are dysfunctional because there were those that actually had accommodation. You have the accommodation on top and the clinic below…Once the accommodation is there, most of the staffing issues will be resolved because you can send the community health nurses there.”

Segbefia noted that, the previous government developed specific guidelines for the construction of CHPS compounds to prevent them from being abandoned.

UG was supposed to manage Medical Centre – Segbefia

On the UG Medical Centre, Alex Segbefia stated that, the University of Ghana had from the onset, been tasked to handle the management of the $217m Medical Centre.

According to him, the second phase of the project, which was expected to cost about 48 million dollars would be paid for by the University after an agreement was reached for the institution to guarantee the loan.

This, he said, meant that the University would be responsible for the payment of the loan for that phase of the project, and handle the running costs of the hospital after five years.

Abandoned projects

Citi News has in the last few weeks put the spotlight on abandoned and non-functional health projects and facilities in the country.

More than 16 projects have been found not to be in use for various reasons including lack of health personnel.

The Volo health facility in the North Tongu district of the Volta Region had been non-functional since the day it was colourfully commissioned.

The Ofankor health facility is also part of numerous facilities which has been completed, but remains unused.

CHPS compounds at Tetegu and Teshie are also yet to be put to use.

Other ones that have been reported by Citi FM are the $217 million University of Ghana Medical Centre and the Bank of  Ghana Hospital.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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This means new subscribers would have to wait until next week to be registered onto the scheme.

[contextly_sidebar id=”0eKp0Qnswqvh6bNHpOSilRyeUGQnvrRk”]According to the Regional Public Relations Officer of the Scheme, Rofina Ankwain, the delay is due to challenges with the procurement of the needed materials from the national headquarters in Accra.

She said other challenges confronting their operations in the region include poor access to internet connectivity.

“Our internet is always down, making it difficult for people to take photos and the fingerprints. Also the ribbons we use for the printing, we don’t have ribbons for the new registrations. We are still having issues with our procurement… We are working to resolve the procurement issue.  A vehicle is leaving for Accra. It will get to Accra on Friday and so hopefully on Monday, we wouldn’t have that problem,” she said.

Meanwhile, in the Greater Accra Region, scores of people who showed up to register at some centres were also turned away due to similar challenges.

A similar situation is being experienced at some NHIS offices in the Western Region, according to Citi News’ Obrempong Yaw Ampofo.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post U/East NHIS unable to print cards over shortage of ribbon papers appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

He described as a misplaced priority depositing the workers Health Fund contributions in the Consolidated Fund.

The TUC Secretary General was addressing organized labour unions in Tamale as part of a nationwide campaign to sustain the NHIS.

[contextly_sidebar id=”Ph760GnkOCLY0mNEcExgusQ3El4fFh5L”]According to him, successive governments’ failure to use the Health Fund contributions for its intended purpose has skyrocketed the NHIS debt portfolio.

“When the money is paid to SSNIT, that money goes to the consolidated fund, and we are saying that if that money is for health insurance why should it go to the consolidated fund,” he asked.

“The talk tax we are paying, part of it goes straight to the YEA. It doesn’t go to the consolidated fund. If the money is sitting in the consolidated fund and the military say they that they don’t have money for food and if you are President what will you do?”

Dr. Anthony emphasized that, “These are the reasons our service providers are sometimes not paid for one year. We will demand that once we are contributing to that fund those things should change.”

The TUC Secretary General decried organized labour’s low representation on the National Health Insurance Authority’s Board.

“As I speak to you, we have only one representative on the National Health Insurance Authority Board, that should change. These are the things we are trying to put in place to make sure that the money we contribute to the calabash, that health fund goes to serve the purpose for which it was collected.”

Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah admonished government to pay workers better salaries.

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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Use workers Health Fund contributions to service NHIS debt – TUC Boss appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The NHIA CEO, who is currently on a nationwide tour, described the ailing National Health Insurance Scheme as a human security threat, hence the need to sustain it at all costs.

[contextly_sidebar id=”wykLY0WlETg19xRX1OUcjWVYFBTXKEoA”]He was speaking at a meeting with labour unionists in the Northern Regional capital, Tamale

The meeting brought together members of the Public Sector Workers Union, Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) and the Civil And Local Government Staff Association of Ghana and among others.

Dr. Samuel Annor admitted that the National Health Insurance Scheme has seen its status dwindled significantly saying, “as an insurance scheme, apart from paying all your bills, you’re supposed to have a reserve for six months so that should any catastrophe happen you can absorb it. But now, we have a scheme that has got zero reserves and owes service providers 1.2 billion cedis.”

He, therefore, underscored the need for the leadership and members of the nation’s labour unions to help sustain the NHIS.

“It is imperative that Ghanaians and for that matter, the country’s labour unions own the NHIS, make their yearly contributions and demand that government fulfills its part of the contribution so that the scheme can be sustainable enough to take care of everyone’s health.”

“Now that we’re being told by the government in power that our health is important, let us not let this opportunity go by. Let us put the laws and rules that will take politics out of the NHIS,” he stressed.

Dr. Samuel Annor solicited the suggestions of the labour unions to assist government revamp the scheme.

“Let us own the scheme. We as workers, we as citizens of this country, let us own the NHIS. Anything that leads the insurance scheme to political influence or any influence or any capture by some group of people or anything that has to do with it, we must defend the scheme with our might, our strength and our sweat.”

Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah promised to solidify the collaboration between the NHIA and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).

He posited that, “While the NHIA wants the Ghanaian worker to pay more to ensure sustainability of the scheme, I propose that apart from having only one representative on the Board of the Authority, in each of the remaining sub-committees, there should also be a labour union representative to ensure judicious use of resources.”

Dr. Yaw Baah said Ghanaians should be willing to pay more for better health service.

“Norway for instance, which has the best health system in the world, taxes her citizens as much as 40% or more, and if Ghanaians also want to have a similar system, then they should be willing to pay more.”

With over 11 million subscribers, the National Health Insurance Scheme is heavily indebted to a tune of over 1.2 billion cedis.

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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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