Upper East Regional Director of Health Service, Dr. John Koku Awonoor Williams has called on the National Health Insurance Authority to move away from the notion that health facilities providing national health insurance services are owned by the authority.
Dr. Awonoor said the Ghana health service is answerable to the clients of the scheme. He added that authorities of the scheme on some occasions take decisions with the facilities without involving the Ghana health service. Mr. Awoonor made this observation in Bolgatanga during a mid -year performance review of the NHIA in the region.
Health providers of National Health Insurance Scheme for some time now provide figures of monies owned them by the authority and the authority on the other hand refute the figures. It is in this regard that Dr. Awoonor called for transparency and coordination in the operation of the National Health Insurance Authority and the Ghana health service.
Dr. Awoonor applauded the authority for rolling out the capitation system since it will provide resources to health facilities ahead of time in order to provide the essential service to clients. He added that the capitation when fully implemented will remove the current situation where some people are “shopping” around at health centers to get drugs.
He commended the NHIA in the region for achieving beyond their set targets despite challenges in biometric cards registration process. The NHIA in the region registered 338,882 memberships as at June 2015 representing 63% with districts such as Bolgatanga Municipal, Bawku Municipal and Talensi-Nabdam satellite offices achieving beyond 70% of their membership targets.
Upper East Regional Director of NHIA, Sebastian Alagpulinsa said in order to meet the set target by the end of 2015, the district offices are positioned and capturing school children and indigents across the region. While calling on all and sundry to assist the authority achieve its set target by the end of the year, Mr. Alagpulinsa gave a strong warning that “there will be no justification for a district office in this region to fail to deliver on its membership target especially the poor and vulnerable”.
Still on the achievements, the director said a total of 50,790 subscribers across all the 8 satellite district offices in the region have chosen their preferred primary provider. The successes made by the authority in the region were through effective communication strategy through the media and community durbars.
Despite the successful implementation of its policies the National Health Insurance Authority in the region lacks adequate vehicles and office accommodation for smooth running of its affairs.
By: Joshua Asaah/A1radioonline.com/Ghana
