Health News of Wednesday, 23 January 2013

Source: GNA

Review NHIS capitation scheme – Director

The Bosomtwe District Director of Health Service, Mr Joseph Adomako, has called for a review of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Capitation after having been piloted in the Ashanti Region for more than a year.

He said it was time to take a firm decision to either continue with the implementation by replicating it across the country or to jettison.

He said this must be done quickly to save many smaller health facilities that were left out of the selection by insurance card holders as their “Preferred Primary-care Provider (PPP)” from collapsing because those facilities are being choked by the lack of funds.

Mr Adomako was addressing an end of year performance review meeting held by the District Health Management Team (DHMT) at Kokoado near Kuntanase.

He expressed concern about the decline of out-patients attendance in the area and said the introduction of the insurance capitation, restricting patients to only their selected PPP facility was the cause.

The DHMT, he said, was focusing on achieving zero maternal death in the district and reaffirmed their determination to work closely with the district assembly and other stakeholders to enhance the quality of health care services.

Mr Felix Osei-Bonsu, the District NHIS Manager, appealed to the facilities to ensure early submission of claims for services rendered to avoid payment delays.

They must, however, make sure that their claims were properly audited and must not be bloated. Nana Premoh Kwagyan, President of the Kuntanase Traditional Council, gave thumps up to the health professionals for their dedication and hard work and urged them to continue the good job.