Strategic plan for NHIS initiated

The National Health Insurance Council (NHIC) has initiated a five-year strategic development plan to accelerate the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Under the plan, a broad-based Regional Board of Directors would be established in each of the ten Regions to oversee the operations of various District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes (DMHIS).

Mr. Ras Boateng, Chief Executive of the NHIC, announced these at a Stakeholders' Forum organized by the Council for Board Chairpersons, Managers, and Public Relations Officers of various District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes in the Central Region at Elmina.

It was designed to present the plan to the Stakeholders and discuss with them its contents, and also gather ideas and suggestions that could be infused into it, if possible.

Mr. Boateng said that the formation of the proposed Regional Boards to control District Schemes was aimed at strengthening the operations of the NHIS at the Regional level and eventually reduce the district schemes over dependence on the executive body of the scheme.

The strategic plan, if put into operation, shall also put in place Regional Claims Processing Centres (RCPC) in all the ten Regions where claims from the district Schemes would be processed, Mr. Ras Boateng added.

He said besides making claims processing work of the Schemes faster and cost effective, the assembling of district Claims Officers at one centre would enable them to share ideas and experiences required for a more efficient and effective handling of claims from service providers.

The Chief Executive Officer maintained that the development objective and strategic initiative of the NHIS should be that it must be realistic, measurable, understandable by all affected managers, employees, and non-executive stakeholders expected to contribute to the implementation of the system.

Mr. Boateng was optimistic that when stakeholders of the NHIS understood the strategic plan fully, they would be able to set through participative processes; undertake onsite survey and inculcate summary findings and recommendations into developed strategy that could cover a specific time frame and design a performance feedback process to push the policy forward.

He charged the implementers of the NHIS to ensure that the policy, which is poverty reduction-oriented strategy designed by the Government always remained equitable and sustainable insurance system that would become a strong pillar and all-time model for poverty reduction in the country.

This way, Board members, Scheme Managers and other line officers of the NHIS would be doing a yeoman's business to assist the National Health Insurance Council achieve a 70% target it has set for the NHIS in five years time.

Mr. Boateng reminded stakeholders of the new health delivery system that, the NHIS principally sought to implement a national policy that would ensure access to basic healthcare to all residents in Ghana.

Answering questions from the participants, the Chief Executive emphasized the need for workers of the NHIS to work harder, adding that the National Insurance Council was doing all it could to ensure that Government met their request for salary adjustment at the appropriate time.