The Brong�Ahafo Regional Office of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has cleared all outstanding claims it owed its 400 service providers over the period of April and May, 2010.
The Regional Health Insurance Manager, Foster Adjei Korang, who announced this at Kofibadukrom during a working visit to the Dormaa
Municipality, said his office had approved the full settlement of claims for the two months totalling GH�7,333, 043.60 while the processing of those for June, 2010 has also begun in earnest.
His visit to the municipality formed part of his tour of all Health Insurance service providers in the region to acquaint himself with their operations and basic challenges they encounter while discharging their duty.
Mr Korang assured the service providers of government�s commitment to sustaining and improving upon the status of the scheme and urged them to keep faith in the system by helping people to help themselves.
He identified late submission of claims as one big problem hampering the office�s operations and appealed to service providers to prepare and submit their claims on time to give his office ample time to vet them for onward submission to headquarters for prompt payment.
Mr Korang urged the public to ignore the falsehood being peddled in sections of the society that government had plans to abrogate the health insurance policy whereas its aims was rather to enhance and make it responsive to the needs of the ordinary Ghanaian.
A common problem confronting smooth delivery of health care by the service providers was regular change of facility by some clients leading to abuse of drugs and complications associated with non-compliance to doctor�s
prescription, he stated.
Madam Florence Queque, Midwife in charge of Kofibadukrom Florence Maternity Home, one of 28 service providers in the municipality, explained
that some of their clients resorted to hopping from one facility to another when they knew that they had not finished the course of drugs prescribed for them during their last visit to the hospital.
The Dormaa Municipal Scheme Manager, Martin Amponsah, explained that it was important for patients to complete their medication before visiting the hospital again as that would give the health staff good grounds to access their condition without difficulty.
Some of the facilities he visited included Florence Maternity Home where he appealed to the government through the NHIA to get it an ambulance
to transport referrals to the nearest hospitals.