By Philip Tengzu, GNA
Wa, (UW/R), Dec. 4, GNA – The Upper West Regional office of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has sensitised the people in the region to the “MyNHIS APP” as part of activities to climax the 20th-anniversary celebration of the Authority.
As part of the sensitisation, staff of the NHIA held a float along the principal streets of Wa as well as mounted a registration desk at the Wa main lorry station to educate and assist people to download and install the Application.
Some staff members of the NHIA were seen engaging in person-to-person education on the “MyNHIS APP”, how to download and install the APP on their smartmobile phones, how to operate the APP and its benefits to the user.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Wa during the sensitisation, Mr Abdul-Rahaman Alhassan, the Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at the Upper West Regional Office of the NHIA, indicated that it was convenient to use the “MyNHIS APP”.
He explained that irrespective of one’s location, he or she could register for a new Electronic National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card (E-Card), renew a card, access the NHIS benefit package and the NHIS drug list, and communicate with the NHIA staff through the APP.
“We have so many options, you can go to the office and register your card, and you can use the short code,*929# to also register or link your Ghana Card but this APP contains more than all these services.
We think it’s even the better option when it comes to health insurance renewal or registration because you can do it at your convenience once you have the APP on your phone”, Mr Alhassan said.
He indicated that the “MyNHIS APP” was more enhanced and enabled users to perform any NHIS activity with ease, including providing the opportunity for users to renew many NHIS cards at a go thus making it easier to renew cards for members of a family.
“The good thing about the APP is that you can also renew cards for groups like your family. You can create your family in a group and always renew them at once.
Because of the numbers you put in there it will be able to calculate the total amount you need to pay, you just pay the money and all the cards are renewed at once”, he explained.
Mr Alhassan, however, said it was illegal for a person to charge a fee to renew or register another person’s card using the APP aside from the normal registration fee of GH₵26.00 and renewal fee of GH₵23.00 charged on the APP.
He encouraged the public to report persons who charged extra fees for providing NHIS services using the “MyNHIS APP” to the police or NHIA for the necessary action to be taken against them.
Mr Alex Bamile Zaga, who had used the “MyNHIS APP” to register for an E-Card, acknowledged that the APP was very convenient and easy to use.
He encouraged the public to download and use it to save time and cost as well as the risk associated with traveling to the NHIA office to register.
GNA