Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, Minister of Health, on Monday said over 13.8 million persons had registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) since its inception in 2005.
He said the scheme had also produced over 12 million cards representing 87 per cent of the registered members.
Dr Kunbuor was answering a question from Mr John Agyabeng, Member of Parliament for Agona East on the floor of the House, on the current state of the National Health Insurance Scheme.
The Minister said over 721,000 pregnant women had been registered as new members under the free medical care policy since July 2008.
He announced that the National Health Insurance Authority was implementing a common Information Communication Technology (ICT) platform that would enhance portability, standardization, member authentication,
finance and supply chain and claims administration to facilitate the running
of the scheme on-line everywhere in the country.
Dr Kunbuor said 870 sites comprising 145 District Schemes, 714 Provider Sites and 11 National Health Insurance Authority sites covering the 10 regions had been hooked on ICT, whilst 4.5 million subscribers had already
received the uniform cards underway for all subscribers.
He said the Authority had also embarked on electronic claims submission and vetting on a pilot basis in partnership with Mamobi Polyclinic in Accra. If it is successful, it would be replicated in other areas of the country.
Dr Kunbuor called for the review of the National Health Insurance
Scheme Law (Act 650) to help improve on the scheme.
On allegation of using the scheme's funds for treasury bills, the Minister said there were a lot of such claims and the Ministry would
investigation the matter to ascertain the truth, when it was necessary.