Bawku suffers 47% membership shortfall – NHIA

Kasimu Abudulai, the Acting Upper East Regional Director of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) says the prolonged conflict in Bawku has affected the Authority’s performance in 2022.

He said it caused a 47 per cent shortfall in membership in the area.

“This, no doubt will affect our efforts at achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the Region,” he added.

Kasimu Abudulai, who was speaking at the 2022 annual performance review meeting of the Authority in Bolgatanga, appealed to stakeholders in the conflict to smoke the peace pipe to enable the area to derive the needed development.

The meeting held on the theme: “The role of digitization in modern healthcare delivery, introducing MyNHIS App,” brought together officials from the Municipal and District offices across the Region to review their performance in the year under review and strategize to improve their activities.

The Acting Director said despite operational and administrative challenges in the year under review, the NHIA had made significant strides in achieving its targets, “On membership, the Region achieved 94.6 per cent of its membership target of 988,442.

“This constitutes population coverage of 70.45 per cent of the Regional population of 1,327,251 and compares favourably with the current national coverage of 54.5 per cent,” Kasimu Abudulai added.

He indicated that the Authority enrolled 94,186 indigents including the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) beneficiaries and pupils under the school feeding programme against a target of 119,270.

He said the NHIA within the year under review introduced a number of key policies and programmes to further enhance efficiency in its operations to the benefit of clients.

On the NHIA App, the Acting Director recalled that Vice President Alhaji Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, on December 5, 2022, launched the ‘MyNHIS App,’ an application that provides a convenient digital platform which allows Ghanaians in and outside the country to register onto the Scheme.

The application also affords existing members the opportunity to renew their membership with the Ghana Cards without having to visit the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) offices, “The application provides operational efficiencies as well as enhances members’ experience,” he added.

He added that the application had reduced the operational burden at the district offices, reduced the cost of Information Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure to the Authority, and improved membership renewal and registration experience, among others.

“We wish to use this opportunity to call on everyone to make use of this digital platform along with the existing Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) system *929# and save themselves the hustle and bustle of visiting the district offices for the same services,” he said.

Kasimu Abudulai said the Authority established ‘Co-payment Committees’ from the National, Regional and District levels to curb the menace of illegal charges from health providers on clients.

“These Committees will provide Executive Management with the relevant information on the extent of the illegal practice in facilities across the country, and advice on the appropriate sanction regime for facilities that may be found practising the illegal charges,” he said.