The Government has cleared debt owed health service providers under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for the period up to June 2021.
The Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu revealed this at press briefing on Wednesday, February 9, 2022, when he was speaking about some achievements of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
According to him, a total of GH₵1.04 billion was paid for claims submitted to the Ministry for the period up to June last year.
He explained that taking into consideration the fact that claims submitted are expected to be paid within three months after receipt, the government owes the health service providers arrears for four months only.
“The good thing is that if you take into consideration the normal leave time for payment for three months where providers submit claims, the law gives us three months to check to see the efficiency of the claims they are bringing to us. If you take consideration of that three months between between June and now [July to January], that’s seven months. Take away the three leave months, effectively, we are owing 4 months arrears,” said the Minister.
Mr. Agyemang-Manu however assured that the Akufo-Addo led government will clear all outstanding claims in the shortest possible time.
Touching on membership of the scheme, Ghana is the first sub-Saharan African country to introduce the health insurance scheme in 2003 through an Act of Parliament, Act 650, Amended Act 852. Its implementation began in 2004.
Based on the amended Act 852 (2012), every Ghanaian is expected to sign onto the insurance scheme for purposes of improved health services and health outcomes.
The minister indicated for past year, the Scheme saw membership standing at 25.3 million while the annual active membership stood at 16.75 million.
According to him, the scheme recorded 34 million visits by some 8.4 million members out of the 16.7 million active members.
This, Mr. Kwaku Agyemang Manu noted, was a great achievement despite the debilitating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on all sectors of the economy.
