NHIA struggling with Akufo-Addo – Minority

General News of Saturday, March 30, 2019

Source: Starrfmonline.com

2019-03-30

A minority in Parliament accused the Akufo-Addo government of collapsing the national health insurance scheme.

S addressing the media after the approval of the disbursement form of the National Health Insurance Fund, Health Committee member Kwabena Mintah Akando, a member of the steering committee, said the program was struggling to pay the service providers.

Juaboso MP also accused the NHIA of wasting funds in non-priority areas.

"I think the national health insurance plan has it all, and we have to be very honest with ourselves. I think we are spending so much money on useless things with the funds. We focus on the main functions of the scheme. The most important in relation to the National Aid Initiative is the payment of claims.

"If you look at the formula that was presented to us, we use about 60% to pay the service providers and the system struggles, it hurts," he told Starr News, Ibrahim Alhbadan.

He added that the government uses NHIA funds to implement many unrelated programs and policies, including corporate social responsibilities.

According to a report published by the daily newspaper Daily Graphic, NHIA owes 615 million CDRL florins to the Cape Teaching Hospital, for the services provided to patients by this program, the amount that has pbaded since eight months from May to the end of May. December 2018.

Due to the nature of the situation, the CCTH CEO, Dr. Eric Kofi Ngyedu, sent a letter to the NHIA CEO to expedite the processing of payments to allow the hospital to continue treating patients with NHIS cards.

The letter of March 11, 2019 was entitled "Distress Call for the Payment of Claims".

He said: "The Cape Coast Teaching Hospital wishes to launch a distress call for the payment of its claims following the financial difficulties that it is going through."

The letter stated that the call had become necessary because "orders for supplies of essential drugs and non-medicated consumables are not delivered due to our inability to pay the average debt owed to suppliers".

"The long payback period of claims seriously affects cash flows and hospital operations. The hospital considers that the continued retention of 10% of reimbursement claims made during the payment continues to affect its ability to recover the cost of purchasing supplies. "

"This has further aggravated our failure to fully respect our commitment to our suppliers. By the end of 2018, a total of 3 189 400.40 Gh had been accumulated as a result of the 10% retention since October 2014, "he said.

A study conducted at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital showed that the NHIA owed the hospital 100,000 to 150,000 Gh.