NHIS estimates GHC100m savings annually

The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has estimated that it could make a Ghc 100 million annually by migrating from manual to electronic-based operations.

The scheme has also estimated that its beneficiaries across Ghana could save an estimated amount of Ghc20 million per annum from transport cost by using the electronic means to register or renew their memberships.

Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NHIS, Dr. Lydia Dsane-Selby made this known while making a presentation on the operations of the NHIS at the fifth African Health Economic and Policy Association (AfHEA) annual conference plenary session two on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 in Accra.

The session, co-sponsored by the World Bank and the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare, aimed at presenting achievements of the health financing system of Ghana and how the country is on its way to UHC and to learn from other countries.

The focus of the session was on how to ensure sustainability of health financing systems while aiming for greater equity.

She stated that when the electronic operations is fully rolled out, beneficiaries could renew or register for NHIS via through phones right from their homes and offices, hoping that will lead to a savings in transport cost.

According to her, the Ghc 100 million estimated saving could be used in paying service providers under the scheme.

On the savings to be derived from transport cost, she told DGN Online that “well you see, people have to take transport to come to our district office to renew and we did some research, ask some questions and most of them said the minimum is around Ghc 4 to go and renew. So if you have five million spending Ghc 4 to renew, if we can stop that and you can sit at home and renew that’s Ghc 20 million right away.

She indicated that by 2020, all service providers under the scheme shall be submitting their claims electronically.

She disclosed that Ghana health insurance currently covered about 37 percent of its population.

According to her, 68 percent of NHIS’s members were exempted from premium payment.