Koforidua, Nov. 11, GNA - Government has released GHC 31,142,027.46 from January this year to date for the payment of National Health Insuran= ce Scheme (NHIS) claims in the Eastern Region. Mr Windham Emil Afram, Eastern Regional Manager of the National Heal= th Insurance Authority (NHIA), who disclosed this at a mid-year review meeti= ng on the Scheme in the Region, said that most service providers had been pa= id their claims up to August. He said the release of the amount indicated government's commitment= to the sustainability of the scheme, adding "We can therefore confidently bo= ast of near prompt payment to service providers". Mr Afram said the last clinical audit that was conducted in the first=

quarter of the year saved the scheme thousands of Ghana cedis. "The scheme gained close to GHC 100,000.00 from just one health facility through claims, which were not supposed to have been paid". Mr Afram said that the Region had been doing well under the NHIS wit= h regards to membership coverage and claims management among others. He said that the Region was part of the financial auditing that had been undertaken but the "good news was that the findings have been purely=

anomalies in book keeping process and not financial malfeasance." Mr Afram said the scheme would organize training for its staff. He said there had been improvement in the processing, production and=

delivery and distribution of identity cards in the country. Mr Afram said the NHIS as part its national registration, was registration people during festivals, market days and other activities. Mr Afram said that the "one-time premium" policy of the NHIS was feasible, adding that modalities for its implementation would be outlined= by the close of the year.