The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has appealed to government to pay off its indebtedness to health facilities under the National Health Insurance Scheme in order to prevent a collapse of the scheme.
“GMA calls on government and the NHIA to as matter of urgency pay all monies owed these facilities with immediate effect to ensure that they are not forced to initiate cash and carry as a mode of payment in their quest to ensure continuous service delivery as well as forestall their collapse and also for health insurance policyholders get all the health services and benefits of the policy,” the GMA said in a statement.
The statement stressed“The Ghana Medical Association has noted with great concern the failure of the NHIA to pay health facilities (Public and Private Hospitals) for services rendered from or about March 2019 to date, resulting in some providers threatening to withdraw services to national health insurance cardholders.”
It comes in the wake of claims by private healthcare providers that government owes them over 14 months arrears.
“To clarify this point, NHIS owe service providers between 9 (nine) to 14 (fourteen) months which covers arrears from 2018 for some providers and 2019 for others. This is unacceptable considering the fact that, the health sector is regarded as an essential service and a key component for socio-economic development.
“The persistent narrative that service providers are unable to timely submit claims as the cause of the delay in reimbursement is untenable as the scheme has enforced strict time lines for submissions stated in the contract,” they said in a statement last week.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
