Dr Bernard Okoe Boye, the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has given an 18-month ultimatum to Healthcare providers to stamp out the manual processing of claims.

According to Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority, even though 80 percent of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) expenditure was spent on claims, payment and management, the manual process sets back the facilitation of the claims.

Dr Bernard Okoe Boye made this known at the first-ever ‘Special Board and Executive Management Retreat’ at Peduase. He disclosed that the authority would roll out a full-scale electronic claims processing (E-Claims) to expedite management and payment of claims (monies) to its clients.

“There is an urgent need to devise prudent measures to curb this anomaly and digitization is the way to go.”
Dr Bernard Okoe Boye

Dr Okoe Boye iterated that since its introduction in April 2013, the electronic system has raked in immeasurable benefits to both the NHIA and healthcare providers as it facilitates the processing of millions of claims in no time.

Dr Okoe Boye noted that the introduction of the electronic system has reduced paper and printing costs, minimized risk and transportation cost of delivering claims and above all, ensured easy detection of fraud and duplicated claims.

“Currently, 2,188 out of the over 4,500 providers submit their claims to the NHIA electronically representing about 48.6 per cent.

“The move to migrate the remaining providers to go digital will make the NHIA one of the most efficient, visible, and viable public institutions in Ghana.”
Dr Bernard Okoe Boye

The Chief Executive Officer urged healthcare providers to comply with this migration directive, and come aboard the digitization turf to drive the NHIA’s vision of sustaining the scheme beyond its 20-year landmark.

Recently, the Director-General of SSNIT, Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) revealed plans to roll out an electronic payment scheme to ease the payment of contributions.

Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang, explained that the electronic scheme will allow people to pay their contributions using mobile money or bank applications without any electronic levy charges. He added that the scheme would also implement policies to make registration easier for individuals interested in being added to the electronic scheme.

Dr. Ofori-Tenkorang noted that it has become necessary to extend the coverage of SSNIT to informal sector workers not only to increase the active membership and contributor base of the scheme but also to ensure that every worker in Ghana enjoys social protection. This, he asserted, would help reduce poverty and over-dependence on family relations and friends during old age.

The Director-General of SSNIT explained that the new SSNIT scheme will offer unique benefits and provide value that no other pension product in Ghana ever offered, adding that the scheme will also give superior value to invested members’ contributions.