The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) is warning service providers against illegally charging patients for drugs, consumables, and services covered under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). The Authority explained that copayment systems, while legally accepted in other jurisdictions, have not been accepted and formalised into the Ghanaian healthcare system, and as such, additional charges not sanctioned by the Authority are deemed illegal.
“Yes the complaints are there. The complaints of illegal charges, which people call co-payment. There’s no co-payment in Ghana. It is a formal system of payment that people practise. We do not practise it. So if anyone talks of co-payment, it is illegal charges. We have signed a contract with you, and we will pay you this much for this service rendered. If you go ahead and charge anything beyond that, it is illegal.”
Kasimu Abdulai, the Ag. Upper East Regional Director of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), shared these concerns when he spoke on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show.
Mr. Abdulai added that to address concerns related to illegal charges, the Authority had set up co-payment committees across the region to receive complaints, and act on them appropriately.
The committees are made up of district and municipal directors, accountants, and PROs of the NHIA.
“We have established formal committees from the regional level to the district levels, which are being supervised by a national committee to handle, specifically, the co-payment issues,” he said.
Shafiq Siita, a senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer with the NHIA in the Upper East Region explained that the Authority had taken issues around co-payment seriously because it affected the image and relevance of the Authority.
“Issues about co-payment are very critical to the integrity and sustainability of the NHIA. So the NHIA is very serious about dealing with complaints,” he said.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
