NHIA directors embarks on regional tour

The Chief Executive Officer of National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mr Sylvester Mensah, on Thursday charged health insurance workers in the regions, to exhibit high sense of commitment towards office duties.

These Mr. Mensah said, was the only means by which the NHIA could achieve set goals of building a credible, cost effective and sustainable health insurance system for the country.

The Executive Officer was closing a day’s workshop designed to upgrade the knowledge of core officers of the various district, municipal and metropolitan health insurance schemes in the Central Region at Elmina.

The workshop formed part of a special regional tour initiated by the NHIA to enable the directors of the authority led by the Chief Director himself to inspect scheme offices in the regions, interact with workers on scheme by scheme basis to know their challenges.

Among key issues discussed at the workshop included, capitation, biometric registration system for the NHIA which is expected to take off in September this year, effective and intensive drive, ID cards renewals, challenges facing claims managements, NHIA ICT platforms, inadequate office accommodation as well as inadequate workforce of schemes.

Mr. Mensah stressed the need for core officers of the NHIA to intensify their membership drive activities in communities under their respective jurisdiction to rope in more clients into the fold of the new health delivery policy.

He maintained that the NHIA cannot afford to fail the nation, saying that, authorities of the schemes would not compromise their effort at living no stone unturned to ensure that the policy become one of the best in the world.

“Our cardinal responsibility as implementers of a vital national social intervention policy was to make sure that we commit all that within us as patriotic citizens to make the policy” the Chief Executive Officer stated.

Mr. Mensah was not happy at the registration records chalked by the Central Region during the previous year, as well as “alleged fraudulent deals” being perpetrated by some accredited service providers in Central and Western regions.

He has therefore tasked scheme workers in the two regions especially claims management officers and scheme managers to be extra vigilant in checking such practices to make the NHIA high cost-serving organisation.

“If you want NHIA to maintain you as its employee and provide you with the much expected better remuneration, then you must learn to work harder and be prepared to shun all types of indiscipline acts so as to improve the policy”, Mr. Mensah added.

The team had since left for the Eastern Region.**