Dr. Lydia Dzane-Selby, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), has expressed the need for all and sundry to subscribe to the Scheme across the country as the scheme is in a better position to serve Ghanaians.
Interacting with journalists as part of the NHIS week celebration, she noted that, the NHIS is in a stronger position than it was a few years ago.
“The NHIS is strong now, it’s in a better position to serve Ghanaians. The days where you have to wait for 30 days before your membership card is activated is over. Now, immediately you register, you can begin to use your card.’’
As part of the Authority’s effort to encourage Ghanaians to sign up to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), it has begun a week-long celebration to sensitize Ghanaians on the NHIS and its attended benefits.
‘’We want all Ghanaians to get on board. This government is changing the face of the NHIS and you must come on board”.
Activities lined up for the week celebration include a float through some principal streets of Accra to create awareness about the NHIS.
Dr. Lydia Dzane-Selby further indicated, ‘’ Ghanaians should take advantage of this membership drive and register because the NHIS will soon be linked to your Ghana Card where access to health care will be much easier’’.
On October 20, 2020, the Deputy Chief Executive in charge of Operations at the National Health Insurance Authority, Mrs. Vivian Addo-Cobbiah charged regional directors to put in extra work in increasing active membership to 15 million by end of November 2020.
Speaking at a strategic meeting with all sixteen Regional Management teams of the NHIA in Kumasi, on the theme, “NHIS: Leaving no one behind”, the Deputy Chief Executive in charge of Operations, Mrs. Vivian Addo-Cobbiah also noted that the Authority has targeted about four million active members in the month of November, 2020.
“Get the numbers by all means so the majority of Ghanaians can access healthcare. In the end, NHIS active membership should rise to 15 million. We need to bring the majority of Ghanaians on board in order to achieve Universal Health Coverage and so let’s get innovative ideas to improve our overall performance”.
As part of the Authority’s plans to celebrate the National Health Insurance Scheme’s (NHIS) week underway, she reminded staff on outreach programs to strictly adhere to the COVID-19 safety protocols for their own welfare and that of the general public.
With this, the Health Insurance Scheme’s Regional and District management teams are to step up their efforts in registering staff of corporate institutions, community residents, religious bodies, children under the School Feeding Program, beneficiaries of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty Eradication Program (LEAP) and Prison inmates among others.
Subsequently, Mrs. Addo-Cobbiah spoke extensively on varying issues pertaining to the scheme including mobile renewals, online credentialing, claims payments, adding Herceptin to the NHIS medicine list, piloting of family planning program, and clustering of healthcare facilities in major cities.
According to her, the inclusion of a specialist anti-breast cancer drug to the NHIS medicine list, online application for credentialing, and the piloting of a family planning program were some novelties introduced by the Authority lately.
She, however, bewailed the bunching of private healthcare service providers in the major cities and called for re-location of such facilities to the under-served areas to make the Scheme accessible to all residents in Ghana in line with the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) agenda 2030.
Also, she indicated that, the Authority would welcome applications from private healthcare providers who are willing to establish facilities in far-flung areas where their services are desired.
Mrs. Addo-Cobbiah further emphasized the impact of the most innovative Mobile Renewal Service and urged the general public to continue using the system for their membership renewals.
