Accra, Aug 22, GNA-The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has urged Ghanaians to promptly renew their membership cards as it remained the surest way to reduce out-of-pocket payment for healthcare services.
Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye, the NHIA Chief Executive Officer (CEO), who made the call said with the mobile renewal service short code *929# people could seat in the comfort of their homes and have their cards renewed.
He thus appealed to the public to get enrolled onto the NHIS and take advantage of the generous benefit package available on the Scheme.
A statement copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said Dr. Okoe Boye, despite his busy schedule as the NHIA Boss still engaged patients at the LEKMA Hospital in general consultation every Monday.
It said the NHIS was proud of covering over 95 per cent of disease conditions that existed in Ghana.
Dr. Okoe Boye recounted the upward adjustment of NHIA medicine tariffs by some 30 per cent that was meant to ensure that health facilities had essential drugs available to take care of the public.
The NHIS Medicines List, which is a subset of the National Essential Drug List has over five hundred (500) formulations to treat a wide spectrum of disease conditions in the country, it stated.
The NHIS, it said, was undoubtedly a critical funding source for most public healthcare providers.
The LEKMA Hospital, like many other health facilities, is heavily reliant on NHIS card bearers whose patronage constitutes over 80 per cent of their internally generated funds that sustains the running of the facility.[Text Wrapping Break]
Dr. Okoe Boye upon his assumption of office interacted with staff and other external key stakeholders, outlined his vision to make the NHIA the best public sector organization in Ghana.
He also declared his ambition to empower staff, strengthen the NHIA brand, and leverage the organization’s resources to execute its strategic plan during his tenure.
“My vision is to make the NHIA, the most visible and reliable public organization with the most vibrant staff and I promise to evaluate the current structure of the Authority to make the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) more efficient.”
Dr. Okoe Boye promised to execute Digitization, Development, Dissemination, Decentralization, and Data, at two Decades (5Ds@2D) agenda as part of the NHIS 20th anniversary.
The 5Ds@2D formed part of his transformational agenda for making the NHIA the most visible and well-structured public service institution in Ghana.
Since he took over, NHIA staff across the board have hailed his stellar performance so far and called for proactive measures to improve their welfare.
GNA