GOVT TO IMPLEMENT ONE-TIME NHIS PAYMENT (SEPT 17, PAGE 14)

THE Government is determined to implement the one-time premium payment for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) by the end of 2010.
The Minister of Health, Dr George Sipa-Adjah Yankey, who gave the assurance at a stakeholders forum at Elmina yesterday, therefore, called for efforts to ensure that its implementation became a success.
Dr Yankey warned officials of the scheme and service providers against fraudulent practices which impeded the smooth operation of the scheme and its sustainability and said the government would not spare anyone whose omissions or commissions hampered the scheme.
He said currently the NHIS had engaged the services of competent auditors to scrutinise the operations of the scheme.
He also called for a strong management and regulatory system which must be accountable to the beneficiaries and contributors.
Dr Yankey said the system had been going through some turbulence hence the forum to smoothen those challenges.
The minister said the last monitoring exercise exposed some of the challenges and encouraged the participants to be open about them and find ways of minimising their effects on the sustainability of the scheme.
Dr Yankey said the scheme would be made more sustainable if malaria was eliminated, adding that the government was committed to the elimination of the disease in the next three years.
In an overview, Dr Nicholas Tweneboa, the Director of Operations of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), said from 2004 to date the scheme had registered about 13,804,198, representing 67 per cent of the population.
He said 12 million cards had been issued and 721,163 pregnant women had been catered for under the free maternal care since July, 2008.
He said 4,098,244 outpatients had benefited from the scheme whiles 295,798 in-patients had also benefited between January and June, this year.
The Chief Executive Officer of NHIA, Mr Sylvester Mensah, said the one-time premium payment was feasible and irreversible.