NHIA Executive Director promotes merger of Ghana card and NHIS card

General news for Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Source: NHIA

2020-11-10

The executive director of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) says that merging the Ghana Card and the National Health Insurance Card is to ensure that people receive comprehensive medical care ranging from promotion and prevention to treatment of according to the values ​​of Primary Health Care (PHC).

Dr. Lydia Dsane-Selby spoke at the official opening ceremony of NHIS Week under the theme “NHIS-Leave No One Behind”, held at the Accra International Conference Center (AICC).

“Ghana has identified Primary Health Care (PHC) as a key strategy for the implementation of the country’s Universal Health Coverage (UHC) roadmap. However, Ghana’s determination to achieve universal health coverage has a much deeper history, beginning with the establishment of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in 2005. In this sense, we pride ourselves on traveling through success. of the NIA Ghana Card to ensure that each captured citizen also has an NHIS membership. “

“The functions of primary health care must focus on the three dimensions of universal health coverage; population coverage, health services and financial protection, as a strategic step to achieve universal health coverage. The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), therefore, is an integral part of achieving universal health coverage in its stated goals. “

He said the Authority would use the celebration of the Week to embark on a mass mobilization of members to increase the active membership of the Scheme, as the issue involves leaving no one behind.

“Currently, the NHIS has 23.1 million registered members in its database, which is equivalent to 77% of the estimated population and it is our decision to ensure that everyone is actively participating in the scheme. Therefore, the Authority is embarking on a massive mobilization of members across the country to capture all citizens in our campaign to leave no one behind. In order not to leave anyone behind, the Authority is prepared to provide access to comprehensive primary health care throughout the country, while ensuring that optimal standards of medical care are maintained. “

“Prior to our push to increase membership, the Authority has accelerated the accreditation process for CHPS compounds under the Ghana Health Service, ensuring that geographic access to healthcare is feasible. The Authority has also embarked on an extensive facility mapping exercise across the country, in an attempt to increase access to healthcare for all of our members. “

The NHIA chief praised the former president for his forward-thinking, saying: “His Excellency former President JA Kufuor initiated the NHIS with the aim of ensuring financial risk protection for all residents of Ghana, while providing benefits comprehensive and well-defined package of quality health services “.

“With the merger of a series of community health insurance plans across the country, the mandate of the NHIS began. It has remained an exemplary health financing mechanism in Africa, thriving through evolving policy directives and implementation strategies at both the national and global levels, ”he stated.
He explained what the introduction of the NHIS biometric registration system required. “Shortly after the establishment of the NHIS, the national database of registered health insureds indicated the occurrence of multiple entries. This required a more representative mode of membership registration, which resulted in the introduction of the NHIS biometric registration system in 2013. This system greatly helped clean up the database, but did not effectively address the problem of membership. inactive “.

He called for a paradigm shift to ensure that citizens receive the appropriate interventions to maintain healthy lifestyles.

“Equally imperative for achieving the goal of universal health coverage is a focus on prevention and health promotion. We need a paradigm shift from curative to preventive healthcare, while ensuring that citizens receive the appropriate interventions to maintain healthy lifestyles. The focus on curative care in our benefits package has resulted in adverse selection, with only the sick accessing NHIS. When we strengthen our efforts to stay healthy as a nation, there will necessarily be a simultaneous reengineering of the NHIS benefit package toward comprehensive primary health care services that address disease prevention and health promotion. “

“It is damaging to think that the provision of free primary health care alone can result in the achievement of universal health coverage. Free primary health care that can only be accessed when sick cannot lead to universal health coverage and does not improve the health outcomes of a population comprehensively. Opinions based on evidence agree that it is an emphasis on prevention and health promotion that keeps the population healthy. The measures to reform and restructure the NHIA, such as the direction chosen by the Board of Directors and the Administration, will take us there ”, he emphasized.

He argued that the NHIA’s top priority is to accelerate the achievement of Ghana’s Universal Coverage.

“For a country to achieve universal health coverage, it is essential to know the demographic characteristics of its people; who they are, where they live and what are their main health problems. These data inform national policies and interventions in the provision of the most appropriate strategies to obtain positive health outcomes. The NHIA is rich in such a data set and requires every registered member to be active for this data to be representative of the current demographic profile of Ghanaian residents. “

She described the Scheme’s Mobile Renewal platform as a game changer and urged people to use it for membership renewals at their convenience.

“The Authority’s consistent response to its members saw a context-appropriate solution to the challenge of long wait times at NHIS district offices during member registration. The NHIS Mobile Renewal system was introduced in December 2018 to a favorable reception, improving the member experience and staff efficiency. Since its inception, the average renewal per month has increased and the system accounts for 75-80% of all NHIS membership renewals. “

In line with the government’s digitization policy, he said that the Authority implemented some new features to eliminate redundancies and shorten the communication chain.

“Along with the above, the NHIA increasingly follows the government’s digitization policy and has employed it in its operations. In addition to mobile renewal, digitization of the vendor accreditation process has been instituted for effective vendor participation in NHIS. Additionally, more than 30% of claims are submitted through electronic claims systems. The benefits of such initiatives were considered most beneficial during the COVID-19 pandemic when their implementation provided a semblance of normalcy for the Authority, its members and suppliers.