Accra, July 25, GNA - The Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mr. Ras Boateng has appealed to all Board Members and Managers of all the 145 District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes to concentrate on their core function of registering all residents of Ghana into the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIC) and providing them with financial access to quality health care. He said they had been put in charge of the single most important social programme in the country today and thanked them for the record achievements so far.

A statement issued in Accra by the NHIA said Mr Boateng also urged them not do anything to derail the exercise to register pregnant women into the scheme. Mr Boateng was speaking during a meeting with the board chairpersons and managers of the 15 District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes in the Volta Region at Keta to address concerns of their concerns.

On conditions of service, he said, the Council inherited the present salary structures at the Authority and in the schemes. Mr Boateng said both the Council and the Authority recognized that the lack of conditions of service and low remuneration of staff of the schemes was a major disincentive and they were doing everything possible to address the problem. As a first step, the Council has approved a Human Resource Manual prepared by the Authority which would be made available to all scheme boards for adaptation. Mr. Boateng said the Council last year approved a 40 per cent salary increase for district scheme staff and had this year also recommended another increase which is before the Ministry of Finance for approval. On the other hand, staff of the NHIA have not had any salary adjustments so as to gradually bridge the salary gap between Scheme staff and Authority staff. "Council has also directed the Authority to come out with proposals to increase the allowances of Scheme Board members as well as ex-gratia awards."

Mr Boateng said the strategic plan of the Authority sought to provide structures that would make it possible for Scheme staff to move from one district to another to work and to be promoted to take up higher positions at the regional level.

He said this could be possible if regional schemes were created to which the district schemes could work. Mr Boateng denied allegations that the Authority had refused to meet the executive of the Association of Workers of District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes. He said he had personally invited the executive to meet the management on several occasions but they declined. He said he called the President of the Association on phone to invite him to a meeting in Accra but he declined on the grounds that he was a student at the University of Cape Coast and he was on campus at the time. Mr Boateng later had discussions with the Medical Superintendent of the Keta Government Hospital and the District Director of Health Services and pledged that the Authority would do everything possible to ensure early payment of claims for service providers in order not to cripple them financially. 25 July 08