NHIS Mobile Renewal usage on the upsurge

The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) members’ usage of the Mobile Renewal Service has seen significant improvement amid the evolving situation with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Available data shows that the cumulative number of mobile renewals from January 2019, to May 2020, stood at 8,099,074.

From June 2019, to May 2020, the ratio of mobile renewals to total renewals shot up from 67.4 per cent, in June 2019, to 82.3 per cent, in April 2020. As at the end of May 2020, total number of mobile renewals was 445,563, an increase of 19.5 per cent over the 372,827 mobile renewals in the month of April, 2020.

Children below 18 category, recorded the highest number of mobile renewals followed by the informal category - members outside the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) bracket.

Except the Upper West Region, all regions saw increases in mobile renewal enrollment between the months of April, and May 2020.

It is for this reason that the Executive Management commends the Scheme's active members and encourages them to continue making good use of the Mobile Renewal Service whilst urging non-active members to get back onto the Scheme in line with Ghana’s objective to attain Universal Health Coverage (UHC). While COVID-19 – the respiratory illness, continues to spread, it is expected that, all NHIS members take action to prevent further transmission, reduce the pandemic’s impact by frequently using the Mobile Renewal Service which serves as a social distancing mechanism.

2019 Renewals

In 2019, a total of 9.1 million renewed their membership out of which more than 5.8 million members representing 70 per cent used the Mobile Renewal platform.

The overall standings indicated that 79.3 per cent of the renewals constituted members who had renewed their membership with the Ashanti Region recording the highest number, followed by the Greater Accra and Brong Ahafo Regions.

Ending 2019, the informal sector which constitutes the only fee paying NHIS membership category represented 34.1 per cent of the active members, an increase from 31.5 per cent in the previous year. Mobile Renewal System

By simply dialing *929# on their mobile phones and paying from their mobile money wallets to stay active, the Mobile Renewal Service offers ease and convenience to members and also gives members the opportunity to provide feedback on their attendance to the NHIA credentialed service providers. NHIS members who are considered as the extremely poor (Indigents), classified by the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection represented 5.6 per cent, an increase from 3.7 per cent in the previous year.

New members constituted 20.7 per cent of the active membership with the Greater Accra region recording the highest number followed by the Ashanti and Northern Regions.

Active Membership

The NHIS active membership rose from 10.8 million, in 2018, to over 12 million, in 2019. Ashanti Region recorded the highest active membership of 2.2 million followed by the Greater Accra region with 1.7 million. The Brong Ahafo region scored third with active membership of 1.5 million and the Eastern was placed fourth with 1.3 million respectively. The Upper West region had the lowest active membership of 0.47 million. Female category tops NHIS active membership ranking

From January, to December 2019, female members continued to dominate active membership of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) with a national outlook of 58.6 per cent against 41.4 per cent males. As a member-driven organization, Central Region’s active female membership stood at 59.8 per cent followed by the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions with a tie of 59.1 per cent. That of Volta was 59.0 per cent, Eastern, 58.5 per cent, Northern, 58.2 per cent, Brong-Ahafo, 57.8 per cent, Upper East, 57.7 per cent, and Upper West, 56.6 per cent.

The Scheme has become more attractive as members who left are returning thereby increasing the number of persons covered and this ties in with the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) vision of the government. This development buttresses the NHIA Chief Executive, Dr. Lydia Dsane-Selby’s saying that the Authority’s major concern is to increase its membership to reposition Ghana in line with the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).