Mr Fred Appiah, Central Regional Director of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), has called on management and staff of the NHIA in the region to this year, increase membership to cover at least 51 percent of the Region’s population.
Mr Appiah made the call when he addressed the 2021 Regional Review Performance Meeting organised by the Directorate at Winneba.
The two- day meeting, under the theme: “Improving the membership performance to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC),” was aimed at strategising to achieve the 2022 set targets for the region.
Performance Review Meetings, he noted were crucial for institutions and organisations to assess output and strategise to improve upon their achievements
Mr Appiah, underscored the objective of the Authority as stated in ACT 852, sections “A” and ‘B”, which was to attain Universal Health Insurance Coverage in relation to persons who reside in the country, as well as people who were not resident in the country but on visits to provide health care services to persons who were covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
“It is mandatory for us to embark on aggressive public education and awareness creation to entice new members to come on-board and for clients whose card have expired to use the mobile renewal service short code “*929#” to renew their cards”.
This he indicated would enable them to link their Ghana Card with the National Health Insurance Scheme Cards
Throwing more light on the theme, Mr Appiah stated that, UHC as known as Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets three and eight sought to achieve financial risk protection, access to quality and safe healthcare services to ensure that all people obtained the required health services without financial hardship when paying for them by 2030.
According to him, the NHIS was Ghana’s leading vehicle to achieving UHC, with a benchmark that at least, 75 per cent of the country’s population must be enrolled unto the Scheme by 2030.
Mr Appiah further announced that, currently the national active membership coverage was 54.36 per cent of the population was far below the benchmark to achieve the 75 per cent coverage by 2030, and would require much work, fortitude, and steady increase in membership on yearly basis.
He said, membership was one of the most important performance indicators of the NHIA, adding that, Central Region recorded an active membership of 101,722 and out of the figure, Mfantseman contributed 20,522, while Awutu Senya East contributed 174 members.
On revenue mobilisation, Audit and Administrative support, Central Region was given a revenue budget of GH¢15, 632,010.06 but was able to accrue GH¢10, 836,450 representing 69 per cent of the target to place seventh position out the 16 regions, he stated.
On claims payment, Mr Appiah said, the NHIA was able to pay providers up to July 2021, adding that, arrangements were far advanced to clear arrears of the remaining months.
He further stated that to bring NHIS closer to the doorstep of the people, NHIA was in the process of setting up new district offices at Ekumfi, Diaso and Awutu Bereku.
There are six satellite offices in the country, 34 sub-offices and 88 registration centers, increasing the number of district offices from 166 to 172.
He thanked the Almighty God, for his continuous protection and guidance during the year under review, especially amid the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Board of Directors and Executive Management of NIHIA for the visionary leadership to the authority.
He further thanked all stakeholders, members of the Scheme and Service providers for their continued co-operation and loyalty that led to sustainability of the NHIA/NHIS.
He again praised the entire staff of the Authority for their hard work and selfless dedication to duty during the year under review.
