NHIA registers 150,000 poor persons for health insurance in Central Region
Some 150,000 financially poor people in the Central Region have been registered with the National Health Insurance Policy free of charge by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
The exercise forms part of government’s plan to assist people facing abject poverty to also benefit from the numerous packages of the policy.
Mr Augustin Acquah, National Health Insurance Authority Monitoring and Evaluation (ME) Head for the Central Region, announced this at a two-day mid-year review conference held at Winneba.
Fifty-seven National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) officers made up of scheme managers, public relations officers, claims managers, and accountants drawn from the 13 schemes in the region participated.
The conference dealt with issues connected with registration, renewals, ID cards distribution and the various financial issues of the schemes within the first half of the year.
Mr Acquah disclosed that the region’s total active NHIA membership as at May ending this year, stood at 834,777, representing 38 per cent of the region’s total population of 2,201,863.
He charged core officers of the schemes in the region to attach their day-to-day official duties with greater commitment and hard work to enable them to achieve the desired results.
Mr Acquah further announced that the NHIA has reviewed prices of drugs approved by the government for the operations of the policy upwards.
The move, Mr Acquah added, was to assist health providers, who are dealing with the NHIA in the implementation of the policy to meet some of the challenges they have been grappling with, in respect of drug prices over the years.
It would also help sustain their interest and confidence in the system, Mr Acquah stated.
He commended the participants for their critical analysis of their own performances within the past seven months and their desire to correct their shortfalls and hoped that they would maintain the spirit to enable them to cope with the challenges ahead.
Mr Abraham Emmanuel Nkrumah, the Regional Accountant, advised managements of participating schemes to ensure prudent financial administration of their respective schemes to ensure reliable and effective operations of the NHIA policy as a whole.
Mr Nkrumah told the meeting that the policy cannot be sustained without careful and more effective financial management of the schemes.
Source: GNA