NHIS membership renewal now through mobile money

From next month, subscribers of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) will have the option of renewing their membership at the comfort of their homes and offices via mobile phones.

This new arrangement has already been successfully piloted in the Asuogyaman District and West Mamprusi District, and has proven to be far better than the existing manual way of renewing memberships which compels subscribers to virtually spend hours in queues at NHIS offices.

Under the new mode of membership renewal, NHIS subscribers only have to dial *929# on all networks and follow the prompts, and in a matter of less than two minutes; membership would be renewed.

This innovative approach by the current handlers of the scheme would go a long way to save time, lower operational cost, increase revenue, attract more members to the scheme and also reduce revenue leakages, among several others.

It would also enhance customer experience by reducing renewal time by 95%, increase renewals and enrolments by about 20%.

At a media briefing in Sunyani about this momentous move, a Deputy Director at the Corporate Affairs Directorate of the NHIS, Oswald Essuah-Mensah was clear that “NHIS is changing and we want you to be part of the change.”

According to him the scheme has been undergoing some reforms since last year with emphasis on improving on its financial standing, migrate from manual mode of claims payment to electronic process, enhance clinical and internal audits and ensure that the scheme is able to take legal action against service providers who breach contractual agreements, etc.

Mr. Essuah-Mensah said for Ghana to achieve the universal health coverage by 2030 as envisaged, there is the urgent need to promote access to quality health care to the poor and the vulnerable.

He said the NHIS currently has a membership of nearly eleven million, representing 37% of the country’s population, with 45% of members in the informal sector.

He added that the NHIS mobile membership renewal and authentication project, when implemented, would reduce the transportation cost of subscribers who usually travel long distances to NHIS offices to renew their membership.

Perhaps, the major pro-poor intervention in Ghana’s health sector since independence, the National Health Insurance Scheme was introduced by the NPP government over 15 years ago to increase access to good quality health care by the vast majority of Ghanaians, especially women, children and the less-privileged.

The scheme currently has 4,300 service providers across the country with 517 medicines on its medicine list.

The NHIS mobile membership renewal and authentication project would be available to all members except indigents and pregnant women.

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