Half of Volta Region population on NHIS
Nearly half of the 2,287,710 inhabitants of the Volta Region have registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
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Figures released by the Volta Regional National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) indicated that a total of 985,453 people had been registered with the scheme as of last year.
Performance review
Speaking at the fourth annual Volta Regional Performance Review of the NHIA at Sogakope, the Regional Director of NHIA, Mr Elliot Nestor Akototse, said 331,014 new members were registered, while 654,359 renewed their membership in 2013.
The increase, according to him, could be the result of the fact that the subscribers were able to access healthcare without much challenge.
Pregnant women
Mr Akototse described the increase as encouraging as a lot of pregnant women had the opportunity to attend antenatal clinics.
He explained that once people got pregnant, they were registered with the scheme and received instant cards to access healthcare without paying any fee.
The regional director,however, debunked assertions that people with NHIS cards were not being taken care of properly, as compared to the uninsured persons who paid for their own medicals bills.
He said some of the delays subscribers went through at the hospitals occurred during checks on the identity of subscriber documentation for claims for services.
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Mr Akototse stated that there had been instances where people without NHIA had presented cards of their relatives to access medical care.
Registration
About 24 health facilities, made up of CHPS compound and health centres, he said, had currently applied to be registered because of what the NHIA was paying the health facilities for services.
He predicted that performance of the scheme would improve with the coming into force of the capitation in the region, since capitation was a win-win reimbursement policy and had enormous benefits for subscribers, providers and the scheme.
The Volta Region is one of the regions chosen for the implementation of the capitation policy, and to ensure it succeeds, Mr Akototse says a series of communications has been sent to both the regional secretariat and district offices as to what is expected of them.