Is This Really The Time For NHIS To Go Biometric?

The issue of biometric data has become very topical in this modern world we live in but the question most Ghanaians are seeking answers to is: 'Why biometric at this time' when the country is in dire economic crisis with no sign of recovery and statutory bodies are floundering to meet their obligations while Ghanaians are now surviving only on hope? This is because the thought of total collapse of our beloved country is unbearable just as much as a statutory scheme like the National Health Insurance Scheme.

The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) have started gradually the biometric registration exercise which is expected to remedy certain challenges facing the scheme which I consider to be very minute among the Scheme's challenges. According to the NHIA, key objectives for implementing the Biometric Solution are to: issue Instant membership ID cards leading to improved card management, clean the membership database as a means of preventing duplicate records, implementation of an effective verification (authentication) system at the point of healthcare service delivery.

These objectives I will say is not a remedy to the major problems facing the Scheme in dispatching its core obligation of providing better free health care for Ghanaians under the Scheme.

Since the beginning of the year, the NHIS scheme has been under threat from various parties involved in its smooth running. We have heard threats of withdrawal of services from the pharmaceutical companies and some private hospitals including the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) which comprises of about 59 hospitals and 111 clinics spread across the country who has withdrawn from the scheme.

This has led to a serious public discontent to an extent that some Ghanaians are threatening abandon of the scheme because in their view, services being rendered at health care facilities under the scheme are sub-standard. These threats are as a result of undue delays and inability to honour financial commitments made by the NHIA to its service providers and suppliers. This is now affecting the quality of services provided to members under the Scheme and these financial constraints is partly attributed to the crippling economic situation in the country at the moment.

Currently, the scheme is in the process of expanding the capitation system which has being touted as a very efficient provider payment method. After piloting for 26 months in the Ashanti Region, the capitation programme cannot be hailed as having achieved its expected outcomes. Contrary to official statements, the capitation proramme has had a crippling effect on the NHIS scheme in the Ashanti Region.

This is because the capitation saw the withdrawal of services and surcharging to supplement fees by some private health care providers who felt the pre - determined fixed rate for the defined service they are to provide under the scheme for a month was incommensurable.

Again one may ask 'why biometric at this time' when the country's economy is in turmoil and the NHIS scheme is 'broke'. This clearly indicates a lack of initiative in prioritization by the managers of the scheme.

As a country we all know how the failure of the National Identification Authority in their implementation of the Biometric national identification cards and also the Electoral Commission's farce which occurred on the day of voting where electoral agents faced technical challenges in verifying registered individuals.

All the predicaments these institutions faced should have been analysed so as to develop effective measures in addressing them in other to prevent a repetition of such scenarios before the NHIA start their biometric process. Just imagine the havoc it will cause when a critically sick person needing urgent health care fails a verification process of his biometric ID due to a technological problem as it ensued over the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections.

The premonition is that, if the major problems facing the scheme is not addressed and a huge chunk of the scheme's budget is spent on this biometric registration process, it will further accentuate the woes of the scheme which will intend lead to its gradual collapse leaving us with a technologically advanced biometric health ID cards but no scheme to attend to.

Alfred Amoah
([email protected])