‘Suspend Health insurance capitation in Ashanti or ...’
The Ashanti Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has appealed to President John Dramani Mahama to urge the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to, as a matter of urgency, suspend the health insurance capitation being implemented in the Ashanti Region.
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Discriminatory
At a press conference in Kumasi where the call was made, the directorate described the implementation of the capitation system in the region for a year, after its piloting in 2012, as unfair, discriminatory and designed to undermine quality healthcare delivery in the region because it had not been extended to other regions across the country.
The Metropolitan Director of Health Services, Dr Kwasi Yeboah-Ewudzi, who made the call on behalf of the directorate, said the capitation, in its present form, was likely to collapse health care facilities if it was allowed to continue to operate in the Ashanti Region.
“Capitation which has been implemented in the Ashanti Region since January 2013 does not provide enough funding to enhance quality healthcare delivery as compared with the Ghana Diagnostic Related Groupings (GDRG) operated nationwide, and all efforts by the directorate to collaborate with the NHIA to increase the rate or roll out capitation nationwide have not yielded fruitful results; hence, our appeal to the President to intervene as a matter of urgency.
We want the whole nation to move together on the implementation of the Capitation in health insurance, which was piloted in the Ashanti Region in 2012 and implemented in 2013, or suspend its implementation by the end of 2013,” Dr Yeboah-Ewudzi stated during the press conference which was attended by some officials of the regional and district health directorates.
Low rate
He said inadequate funding for healthcare providers hooked onto the insurance scheme in the region, coupled with the low rate of GH¢1.30 allocated to each client registered with the facilities, made it impossible for healthcare providers to meet the healthcare needs of clients.
Using the Methodist Faith Mission Hospital at Ankaase in the Afigya Sekyere District and the Suntreso Government Hospital at Kumasi as examples, Dr Yeboah–Ewudzi said between January and December 2013, the management of the Ankaase Hospital, which has registered a total of 42,402 clients under the capitation system, was provided with GH¢177,520.63.
He said their counterparts, who operated the GDRG with the same number of clients, were provided with a total of GH¢439,338.60, indicating that there was a shortfall of GH¢261,817.97.
Dr Yeboah-Ewudzi said at the Suntreso Government Hospital, where a total of 73,259 patients were registered in the year, the NHIA provided a total of GH¢452,292.78 as against GH¢577,522.39 provided for their counterparts outside the Ashanti Region.
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He said the Suntreso Hospital had a shortfall of GH¢125,229.60 under the capitation, and said the situation was related to all facilities that operated the capitation in the region.
“The effect is that we cannot provide quality healthcare services if we continue to operate the capitation in the region and patients have to buy certain drugs to supplement what we offer at the hospitals,” he declared.
On why they were making the appeal at this time of the year, he said the timing was appropriate because it would allow all facilities to implement the capitation or make the President to implore the NHIA to suspend its implementation altogether.