Govt pays GHc100m arrears owed NHIS service providers
The Government, through the Ministry of Finance, has paid GHc100 million as part payment of arrears owed National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) service, providers.
This follows the Private Health Facilities Association of Ghana’s threat to partially withdraw its services if government fail to pay the nine months to claim arrears.
Mr Frank-Torblu Richard, General Secretary of the Private Health Facilities Association of Ghana, told the GNA in an interview in Accra on Friday that the GHC100 million part-payment paid by the Government was meant for both public and private health facilities.
It was left with GHc50 million arrears to be paid.
Last Tuesday, April 5, the Private Health Facilities Association of Ghana held a news conference and demanded that the Government of Ghana release funds to NHIA for immediate payment of claims to the healthcare service providers of all arrears up to the month of December 2021.
The request included outstanding payments owed from some health facilities for the period 2017 to 2020.
The association demanded also that the Government reinstated the collection of toll levy and direct any revenue realised to support the Free Senior High School programme to reduce the virement or administrative transfer of NHIS levy revenue for other payments.
It demanded that the National Health Insurance Authority expedited the review of the medicine and service tariffs to reflect current market variables to enable health facilities to provide expected healthcare as envisioned by the NHIA.
And that, the Review Committee of the NHIA should have a fair representation from the Private Health Facilities Association to guarantee the quality of the review outcome.
“We request for a formal engagement with the Ministry of Health and the various health facility regulators to review/amend the credentialing threshold on staffing requirements and the possible allocation to health staff to private facilities,” it said.
It said failure on the part of the Authority to comply with the set timelines, would not hesitate to partially withdraw services and that NHIS clients will have to pay the full cost of drugs covered under the scheme to NHIS clients nationwide as a strategy for survival in these tough times.
“From our candid perspective on recent happenings with the scheme, Private Health Facilities Association of Ghana whose members are some of the biggest beneficiaries of the scheme portend doom as we can confidently confirm without a doubt that the National Health Insurance Scheme finds itself in a precarious situation and in a serious state of financial distress that needs an immediate lifeline if it will survive as the only healthcare intervention serving the people of Ghana,” the Association said.