The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has refuted allegations of deliberately delaying payment of claims to service provider under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Acting Ashanti Regional Manager, Nurudeen Bawa, says providers suffer delay in accessing claims because the health insurance scheme operates under a postpaid system and processing of claims is also done manually.

“We are gradually moving from the manual process to electronic processing of claims where we will soon be able to improve payment of claims,” he told 3news.com at the NHIA mid-year media review forum in Kumasi.

“It is untrue that the NHIS levy is credited directly to their accounts because every public fund goes into the consolidated fund first before disbursement.”

Mr Bawa is optimistic about the future of the health insurance scheme, stating that “the interest to register is increasing contrary to claims that people are losing interest in the scheme”. Data available to the NHIA shows that about 4.3 million insurance cards have been issued to new subscribers between January and June 2016.

The Authority is expecting to register 17 million Ghanaians in two years. Deputy Director at the Private Health Insurance Unit, Hudu Issah, said it is legally mandatory for every resident in Ghana to have health insurance cover, hence the need to choose between the national and private health insurance schemes.

The NHIA mid-year media review forum was to afford Journalists the opportunity to interact with management of the scheme.