The usage of Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Mobile Renewal Service has been increasing on a monthly basis since the lockdown was lifted.

The latest summary report indicates an increase of 8.2 percent for the month of June 2020 which stood at 482,314 being the total number of Mobile Renewals as compared to 445,563 in the month of May 2020.

With the exception of Bono Region, all 15 regions recorded increases between the months of May and June 2020. The cumulatively number of Mobile Renewals from January 2019 to June 2020 was 8,581,388.

Categorization
In general, 45.5 percent of NHIS active members under 18 (children), category recorded the highest number of Mobile Renewals followed 42.7 percent of the informal category representing people who are not contributors to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).

With 0.8 percent, the SSNIT Pensioners category recorded the lowest number of Mobile Renewals for the month of June 2020.

Management urges NHIS active members to continue using the Mobile Renewal platform by dialing the short code *929# on any mobile phone with money in the wallet.

Genesis
In line with government’s digitization drive, on December 19, 2018, Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia launched the Mobile Renewal Service to make the NHIS more accessible to its members and also improve upon the Scheme’s financial management.

The initiative marked the beginning of the total digitalization of the system of enrolment of new NHIS clients, renewal of membership, submission, processing and payment of claims to support efforts of the government towards universal health coverage of the country.