The Water Project, which was constructed with a facility from the Korean Exim Bank, will supply 3.3 million gallons of water per day to the 100,705 residents of Wa.

Commissioning the Project, President Akufo-Addo described it as a very happy day for him, especially as the project was started “at the time of the great Ghanaian leader, John Agyekum Kufuor.”

The President noted that “it was in his (President Kufuor’s) time that the financing for this project was secured, as far back as 2008. But, unfortunately, after he left [office in 2008], it took five years under the NDC governments before the construction of the project began.”

“God has his own way of doing things. A project that was begun by Kufuor is going to be commissioned by Akufo-Addo. That is the way the Almighty works,” he added.

President Akufo-Addo urged residents of Wa to “look after the project and make sure you use the water with care. Turn off the taps [when not in use], continue to conserve water, and settle the little bills that would come, so that the project would continue to run and provide you with the service.”

The President commissioned the project on Monday as part of two-day tour of the region.

He is expected to visit the Upper East and Northern Regions as part of a 7-day tour of northern Ghana.

–

By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Reports indicate that some foreigners from Togo and Burkina Faso come to the country and register with Ghanaian names.

These foreigners are sometimes aided by Ghanaians to carry out criminal acts.

Speaking to Citi News, the Communications Manager at the NHIA, Selorm Adonoo described the act as illegal.

According to him, the NHIS was not the only Authority experiencing such a problem; “It is not just with the NHIS it is a general problem. .”

In that regard, he asked Ghanaian citizens to report any illegal act employed by either foreigners or citizens in the registration process to either the Police or the Authority.

“It is illegal to do that so we will entreat everybody to report any such instances to us or to the Police so it is dealt with.”

By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Sylvester Mensah, NHIA Chief Executive stated this in a speech read for him at a durbar in Ho on Monday for staffs of the Health Insurance Schemes in the Volta Region.

He said the durbar was in the spirit of the Management Retreat earlier on in the year, at which, developmental blueprints of the Authority were discussed.

Mr Mensah stated that the durbars being held in all regions were therefore idea-inlets into a pool to guide management.

According to him, management was intent on improving efficiency to reduce leakages and expected that progress would be made in the programmed restructuring of the schemes and the regional offices of the NHIA.

Ahmed Imoro, Director of Finance who read Mr Mensah’s speech said the regional forums were considered useful encounters.

He pointed out that cost cutting, as demonstrated in the Management Retreat, on account of it being non-residential, gave indications about directions things would go.

Selorm Adonoo, Communications Manager in a media interview said the forum was expected to have a feel of workers concerns and aspirations.

He said arrangements for the implementation of capitation in the region had reached an advanced stage adding that there would also be discussions on biometric registration and updates on e-claims.

He said the NHIA intended to avoid the furore that characterized the introduction of capitation in the Ashanti Region, when it got underway in the other regions.

Elliot Nestor Akototse, Volta Regional Manager of NHIA, said all service providers in the region had been paid their claims for 2013, and that the process to start paying 2014 claims was on.

He therefore, discounted claims that service providers were withholding services for not being paid.

Mr Akototse said with the release of a new drug list soon, the problem of differences of cost of drugs being demanded by Pharmacists would be over.

Source: GNA

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Mr. Alexander Odoi Nartey, Deputy Chief Executive in-charge of Finance and Investment, National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) said the old cards were still valid and acceptable by any service provider until the five-year tenure expires.

The NHIA is currently registering clients for the biometric health Insurance cards in the Greater Accra, Central and Eastern Regions and hope to extend the exercise to the rest of the regions by December 2014.

Mr. Nartey made this known at a Regional Staff durbar at Takoradi in the Western region and urged staff of the organisation to educate clients on the process to avoid a mad rush at registration points.

The Head of Finance and Investment said the Authority was also scaling up the capitation of the scheme and to improve the electronic-claims to ensure efficiency.

Mr. Nartey asked various managers of the scheme to popularize the call centres to ensure effective public engagement.

Mr. Winfred Agbeibor, Director, Corporate Affairs of the Scheme said the re-branding of the authority called for a united effort in administering healthcare services to clients.

Source: GNA

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The Executive Director of CHAG on the Citi Breakfast Show explained that health centers under the association are unable to provide quality health care to NHIS subscribers due to the failure of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to reimburse them early for services rendered.

He said: “We are not able to give them the medicines we prescribe, patients come to us under emergency situations and we have to send relatives out of the hospitals to buy medicines and other inputs…and the key issue is the National Health Insurance.”

These challenges according to him, “does not sit well with us as a Christian organization.”

Dr. Buckle disclosed that the NHIA is in arrears of six months and the cost of the services provided is “much higher that what the insurance is reimbursing us for.”

In relation to the ongoing NHIS Capitation in the Ashanti Region, Dr. Buckle stated that “all the clinics are collapsing just because the capitation tariffs are too low and the community is bypassing the primary health.”

He claimed that the NHIS capitation is collapsing primary healthcare delivery in the Ashanti Region.

The CHAG Executive Director also pointed out that the NHIS Levy “is not being fully applied to the services of the National Health Insurance Authority,” an information he says has been relayed to them by the NHIA and the Finance Ministry “that government has other statutory expenses it has to incur and therefore National Health Insurance levy is being used to do that.”

Dr. Buckle clarified that before they signed onto the NHIS, health services in their hospitals and respective clinics “were of the highest quality and we could finance our cost of services.”

He described their decision to withdraw their services to NHIS card bearers as “very difficult” following a series of meetings and deliberations.

The CHAG is made up of 59 hospitals and 111 clinics across the country.

In response however, the Communications Manager of the NHIA, Selorm Adonoo stated that the Authority has been in talks with CHAG and their concerns will be addressed before the July 2 deadline given.

He admitted that due to the central system of operations of the NHIA, funds for service providers under the scheme are sometimes delayed.

According to him, the NHIA now has a lot of claims to process due to the increasing number of health facilities and NHIS subscribers saying, “last year, we had about 27.7 million claim forms we had to deal with and that is a lot of work…so as we grow, a lot of these things keep coming.”

Mr. Adonoo added that the implementation of the revised medicines list and tariffs will be implemented by close of June, 2014.

He was however, unable to give a definite time in which the payment of the arrears will be settled because “we [NHIA] are not doing this alone and we depend on other government agencies for this.”

By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @osamidan

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According to the youth, the economy is in a mess since the average Ghanaian cannot afford basic healthcare.

Speaking after a cleanup exercise organized by the youth in Bawku, the Director of Communications for the Bawku Central NPP,  Nurudeen Guma said the priority of every Ghanaian is to have access to basic healthcare but  this is impossible because of the extreme economic hardships.

“As Ghanaians, getting good healthcare is topmost priority because if you are not healthy, there is nothing you can do, but the NDC government is messing up the economy. People are struggling just to get good healthcare. We cannot afford to go to the hospital because you will end up paying for the services even though you are on the National Health Insurance Scheme. This government has messed up the NHIA,” he stated.

He also took a swipe at the government for their failed promises saying, “look at the Bawku -Bolga road. The late President Atta-Mills promised to fix this and even the president has been here and he also made the same promise but the road is yet to be fixed. You will spend three hours on a seventy-eight kilometer road. Why should that be so?

By: Anita Amoako/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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