Capitation is to promote NHIS objectives – Director
Mr. Anthony Gingong, Director in charge of Provider Payment at the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), has said that the essence of introducing the capitation system into the operations of the National Health Insurance Scheme is to ensure total attainment of its objectives.
To this end, he said, the Authority has put in place all the necessary mechanisms needed to pave the way for smooth, orderly, and effective implementation of the capitation throughout the country.
Mr. Gingong was rolling out the Capitation at the Central Regional Administration in Cape Coast to kick-start its use in the region.
He expressed appreciation to people in the Ashanti Region for embracing the capitation, after grappling with the tense challenges the system attracted initially when it was introduced in the region three years ago.
Mr. Gingong was hopeful that with the introduction of the Capitation, the principal aims and objectives of the NHIS, centered on quality and affordable healthcare for present and future generations of the country, would be achieved and sustained.
He said the Authority anticipated the initial criticisms and other challenges which erupted when it was first introduced in the Ashanti Region, because developed countries which adopted the Capitation System to support their Health Insurance Policies also suffered similar problems at the initial stages.
Mr. Gingong announced the setting up of a Regional Steering Committee, as well as Municipal and District Capitation Committees, to speed up the implementation of the system.
He said one of the most pressing issues the Capitation system was meant to eradicate from the operations of the various Municipal and District Schemes was the abuse of the Health Insurance Policy by some unpatriotic NHIS clients who intentionally hopped from facility to facility with their Health Insurance Identification Cards to collect drugs and store them in their homes.
Mr. Gingong described this practice as wicked and very dangerous, because it weakens the financial base of the Health Insurance Policy and drew back its progress.
Mr. Gingong and Mr. Francis Oti Frempong, Central Regional Director of the NHIA, assured Mr. Aquinas Tawiah Quansah, the Central Regional Minister, of the NHIA’s readiness to team up strongly with all the major stakeholders in the Region to make the Capitation System succeed.
Mr. Quansah thanked the NHIA Management for finally rolling out the Capitation System in the Central Region, and assured them of his administration’s determination to ensure a maximum success of its operation in the region.
He also admitted that the new system may encounter some challenges in the region, but expressed the hope that with intensive public education, much could be achieved.
The Regional Minister charged all NHIA communication officers in the region to intensify their sensitization activities on the Capitation System in all corners to accelerate its implementation.
The Regional Minister announced plans to secure a more suitable place to construct a new and befitting regional hospital in Cape Coast to replace the current one, which is now serving as a teaching hospital.
Source: GNA