The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), has resumed the printing of the NHIS cards, the Chief Executive Officer of the authority Mr Nathaniel Otoo, has said. This follows the delivery of 6,000 ribbons.<\/p>\n
He said the authority was expecting another 4,000 ribbons by the close of this week. Within the last few weeks, the authority experienced shortage of ribbons, making it impossible for it to issue cards, a situation which created huge crowds at various district offices. With the delivery of the 6,000 ribbons, all the district offices are well stocked and have resumed work fully.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”qUAZi6i3CQIZPahkVWrDwgNEvXxVXGLU”]As of August this year, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) had issued 6.4 million cards to people who were renewing, replacing lost or defaced cards, as well as people registering for the first time.<\/p>\n
Last Thursday, Mr Otoo paid working visits to some NHIS district offices in Accra to ascertain the ground issues pertaining to the issuance of cards, as well as to speak to subscribers and help address some of their concerns.<\/p>\n
Lost NHIS Cards<\/p>\n
Mr Otoo\u2019s particular concern was with people who had lost their cards or who had their cards defaced , saying as of August 2016, the scheme had replaced 2.6 million of such cards, a situation he said had taken a heavy toll on the scheme.<\/p>\n
The authority estimated to issue out a total of 4.3 million cards by the end of this year, but as of September, it had already gone beyond its estimation due to the huge numbers of people who had misplaced or defaced their cards.<\/p>\n
The CEO said although the scheme had planned ahead, it did not anticipate such a huge number.<\/p>\n
That, he said, was worrying as the increase in lost cards was creating shortage in the system.<\/p>\n
At the Osu Klottey and Ayawaso districts NHIS offices he advised holders of NHIS cards to ensure that they kept their cards safe so that it would help save the government money as the cards were heavily subsidized.<\/p>\n
He said if the trend should continue, it would not allow the scheme to concentrate on its mandate of issuing out cards to new members and renewing those which were due for renewal.<\/p>\n
NHIS not collapsing<\/p>\n
He gave an assurance that the NHIS was not facing an imminent collapse but that the scheme was rather growing from strength to strength, saying that was evident in the number of people who trooped to the various district offices for cards.<\/p>\n
He said currently, the scheme had 4,000 service providers across the country and it continued to receive applications from new health facilities that wanted to be accredited by the NHIA.<\/p>\n
Some of the subscribers who spoke to Daily graphic complained about the long waiting hours that they had to endure, but Mr Otoo assured them that the scheme was looking at renewing cards every two or three years instead of letting them go through the deal of renewing cards yearly.
\n–
\nBy: Daily Graphic\/Ghana<\/p>\n
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The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), has resumed the printing of the NHIS cards, the Chief Executive Officer of the authority Mr Nathaniel Otoo, has said. This follows the delivery of 6,000 ribbons. He said the authority was expecting another 4,000 ribbons by the close of this week. Within the last few weeks, the authority […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":246949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n