Brong Ahafo NHIA Organizes End of Year Review Meeting

The National Health Insurance Authority in the Brong Ahafo region have organized an end of year review meeting for 2014 at Sunyani, on the theme: Eleven Years of NHIS Implementation in the Brong Ahafo Region, Successes, Challenges and the way forward.

AG. Regional Director, Sebastian Alagpulinsa said they have achieved a total active membership registration of 1,507,469 representing 61% coverage of the region's population.

And out of the membership, a total of 437,795 poor and indigents were registered from a regional target of 272,056.

He said Brong Ahafo Region was first among the among the non-biometric regions at the National level.

"In our drive to increase efficiency in the financial operations of the scheme and particularly in the region, we conducted 43 payment verification visits to the twenty (20) district offices and 144 provider sites to ensure effective application of the NHIS tariff regime and the medicines list."

According to Mr. Sebastian Alagpulinsa, another innovative strategy that was pursued by the region for the sustainability of the scheme and as a step to reduce clinical audit deductions at the provider site, was the partnership between the regional office of GHS and the NHIA to train all providers in the region on the standard treatment

guidelines as well as rational use of medicines.
He added that the Brong Ahafo NHIA, have paid claims up to July 2014 with a total cost of GHC 44,381,429.29 at 2,399,449 utilization for both OPD and IPD. "when this is compared with the same period in 2013, claims cost as at July was GHC 37,276,189.49 with total utilization of 2,120,260. In terms of the cost it shows a percentage change of 19% and that of utilization is 13%."

Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Hon. Justice Samuel Adjei said the health insurance scheme in Ghana since its inception, has to a large extent positively affected the lives of its subsrcibers and has chalked numerous successes.

He said the programme has systematically achieved: the reduction in the rising cost of health care among the participants; it has led to the fair distribution of contributions for health; it has ensured that socio-economic groupings do not constitute a barrier to somebody to access health care where he wants; and it has restored confidence in

primary and secondary levels of health care.
"Contrary to the perceptions in some sections of the Ghanaian populace that the National Health Insurance Scheme is collapsing, i wish to take this opportunity to indicate that the scheme has achieved remarkable results in our region. Its active membership coverage rose from a total of 1,353,761 in 2013 to 1,507,469 in 2014, representing 65.23 percent of the Regional population of 2,310,983 (2010 PHC)."

Hon. Justice Adjei commended staff of the NHIS in the region for this remarkable and enviable achievement.