NHIS registered members advised to renew ID cards

Mr. Emmanuel R. Okyere, Manager of the Sekondi Sub-Metro Health Insurance Scheme has advised registered members of the scheme to check and renew their identification cards (IDs) to enable them to enjoy continued free healthcare service.

He said all expired IDs must be renewed at the nearest National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) office without delay.

Mr. Okyere said the renewal of IDs and updating of members records does not delay.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency at Sekondi on Monday, he stressed that adult members of the scheme do not need to take new photographs during the renewal but explained that children whose pictures were not up to date would have to replace them.

He said the NHIS IDs have a lifespan of one year and all beneficiaries of the cards must renew them to avoid embarrassment at the health facilities.

Mr. Okyere said, so far, the office had renewed 487 old cards and issued a total of 34,006 new IDs and health facility attendance cards to registered members and their dependants presently on the scheme.

He said the scheme paid a total of 1.5 billion cedis as claims between January and October 2006.

The various NHIS, have not increased the premiums and the premiums still range between 72,000 and 480,000 cedis, he added.