The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has said by the close of this year, 17 million health insurance cards would have been issued to new members since 2014 when it rolled out its biometric system.

A statement issued by Mr Selorm Adonoo, Communications Manager for the NHIA, on behalf of its CEO Nathaniel Otoo, said in order to meet the target, efforts were being made to register a vulnerable category of schoolchildren and other groups across the country.

“In order to reach this target, a lot of activities including registration of National School Feeding Programme children and other vulnerable populations and many outreach endeavours are being undertaken. The NHIA, due to the intensity of these outreach programmes, has run out of its stock of ribbons for close to a week now and this has slowed down registration, but it has not stopped it. To address this occurrence, the authority will take delivery of ribbons this weekend to augment the stock.

“Plans have been completed for a continual supply. For the year 2016, based on projections from previous years, it was expected that 4.3 million new cards would be issued. However, by the end of June, this number has almost been issued. And this is just half year. In addition to ensuring adequate ribbons supply, steps have already been taken to procure card stocks to ensure registration goes on smoothly.

“The unexpected delay in ribbons delivery has meant a temporary setback, but that will be resolved next week after taking delivery of the consumables this weekend. It is worth noting that by the end of 2016, the NHIA now expects the number of cards issued since the start of its instant biometric cards in 2014 to stand at 17 million,” the statement said.

It added: “Regarding the issue of delays in claims payment in the Volta Region, management of NHIA is preparing to make payment on account to facilities. The reasons for some delays are late submission of claims but this will not be allowed to stand in the way of the payments on account.

“We are also aware that some facilities are requesting for payments from patients without receipt, the Ministry of Health has requested the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service to enforce the directive regarding this practice in some hospitals.”