The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has announced that breast screening is now part of the benefit package under the newly launched Free Primary Healthcare (FPHC) policy.
This was disclosed by the NHIA’s Director for Operations, Ms Miriam Musah, during a courtesy call by the Ghana Cancer ImPACT Review Mission Team at the Authority’s Head Office in Accra on Wednesday.
The visiting team, made up of national and international cancer experts, engaged the Authority on strategies to strengthen cancer planning, control, and treatment in Ghana.
Ms Musah explained that the FPHC reform is focused on defining a comprehensive preventive and promotive healthcare package, supported by a dedicated funding line.
“What the NHIA is doing through the new reform that we have, which is FPHC, is to define a preventive and promotive package for healthcare services and to create a funding or budget line for it,” she said.
ImPACT Mission Programme Officer, Alfred Karagu, noted that the mission aims to enhance health systems both nationally and globally, particularly in cancer care.
“We are here to see how we can strengthen the health system, especially in the area of cancer care and treatment,” he stated.
On cancer treatment coverage, NHIA’s Director for Claims Processing Centre, Dr Abigail Derkyi-Kwarteng, revealed that the Authority is reviewing tariffs to improve access.
She indicated that while chemotherapy services are already covered, radiotherapy tariffs, previously considered low, have been revised upward by about 120 percent and are awaiting implementation.
In a presentation on cancer curative care, NHIA’s Deputy Director for Strategic Health Purchasing, Mrs Eunice Nkrumah, highlighted that the Scheme currently covers several cancer treatments.
These include Cervical and breast cancer care, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, while prostate cancer are undergoing assessment for inclusion.
She further noted that the Scheme supports treatment for four childhood cancers: Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, Burkitt Lymphoma, Retinoblastoma, and Wilms Tumour.
The Ghana Cancer ImPACT Review Mission Team commended the NHIA for its efforts in expanding cancer care services and expressed optimism about the implementation of the revised tariffs.
