Unpatriotic NHIS service providers urged to change attitude

Saltpond (C/R), Jan 17, GNA - Mr Robert Quainoo-Arthur, Mfansteman District Chief Executive (DCE), has cautioned service providers whose unpatriotic attitude is discouraging people from registering with the District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (DMHIS) to turnover a new leaf. Addressing the first annual general meeting of the DMHIS at Saltpond on Tuesday, he said it had come to his notice that some service providers were frustrating clients who reported at their facilities for attention.

The DCE reminded the people that the scheme belonged to them and should make every effort to sustain it by exposing service providers and others who undermined it.

Mr Quainoo-Arthur said the scheme had come to stay and urged the "Doubting Thomases" sitting on the fence to get involved. He advised people who had been reading politics into the scheme to stop since they would not be sparred when found.

Mr Frank Neequaye, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said 45,686 people had registered with 15,672 issued with identity cards. He said the District Scheme had received 1,317,726,000 cedis as subsidy from the National Council of the Scheme while internally generated funds amounted to 267,191,000 cedis with 1,042,258,628 cedis paid as claims as at 31 December 2006.

Mr Neequaye identified inadequate logistics, frequent power cuts, which does not allow staff of the scheme to give up their best and low premium as some of the problems facing the DMHIS.

He called for an increase of the premium of 72,000 cedis since bills kept mounting at a rate of 50per cent every month. The Board Chairman said prices of medicine were different from what was agreed on in the contract document with some service providers issuing unapproved drugs to clients and called on them to put a stop to the practice.

It came out at the meeting that some of the Chairmen of the Scheme in the communities had not registered.