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| NHIS in Trouble! |
9/21/2005 |
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NHIS in Trouble!
Health Bosses In Big Row Over Software For NHIS
Disagreement between the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the National Health Insurance Council (NHIC) over what software to use in processing claims is frustrating the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
While the NHIC is insisting on the use of software it designed, the GHS is in favour of one provided by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA).
Dr Samuel A. Akor, the executive secretary of the NHIC, explained that unlike the software introduced by the council, which requested elaborate, individual and itemised information before one could access a facility at a health care delivery centre, the DANIDA software provided summarised information which could easily be manipulated.
“People can fraudulently manipulate what the GHS is asking for, which can force schemes into financial difficulty,” he observed.
He said, because of that disagreement, he had to personally travel to the Tema General Hospital to intervene on behalf of the schemes in the municipality.
Dr Akor expressed displeasure at the attitude of the regional co-ordinating councils (RCCs) which were supporting officials of the GHS to slow down the implementation of the scheme.
“The GHS was with us when we were working on the claim form which they are rejecting now,” he stated.
He said some hospitals were refusing to provide services to insured clients because the regional health directors had instructed them in that direction.
“Many schemes are ready to start but the hospitals are refusing to accept them,” he stated.
Source: Graphic
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