Sylvester Mensah Heads NHIC (Middle Page)

THE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Council (NHIC), Mr Ras Boateng, has been asked to proceed on leave. In his absence, Mr Sylvester Mensah, a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Dadekotopon, has been appointed as the acting CEO.
Mr Boateng was appointed to head the NHIC in February, 2006 after the first Executive Secretary of the Council, Dr Samuel A. Akor, had been relieved of the post.
This was announced by the Minister of Health, Dr George Yankey, in Accra yesterday, at a ceremony where he also inaugurated a 17-member reconstituted board of directors of the NHIC. The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Doe Adjaho, who is a lawyer by profession, is the chairman of the board.
Administering both the Oath of Office and that of Secrecy to the board members, Dr Yankey gave them 10 days to look at sections of Act 650 that affect the operations of the council for subsequent amendment.
Dr Yankey said portions of the NHIC Act (Act 650 of 2003) that allowed each District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (DMHIS) to have a separate board, made room for duplication of work and which in effect brought about delays and inefficiency in the operations of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Section 54 (1) of the Act states; “Every scheme shall have a governing body which shall be responsible for the direction of the policies of the scheme and appointment of employees.”
Subsequently, section 11 (2) of Legislative Instrument, L. I 1809, which established the NHIS, states thus; “Every scheme shall determine the size of its governing body except that in the case of a district mutual health scheme, the membership of the body shall not be less than seven members and not more than 15 members of whom at least two should be women.”
According to Dr Yankey, all the 145 DMHISs in the country had 15 board members each, a situation he considered as waste of resources, adding that when those sections were amended by Parliament, it would enable the NHIC to directly get involved in the operations of schemes to ensure effective co-ordination.
He pointed out that there was no way the NHIC could effectively co-ordinate the operations of the 145 DMHISs in the country if they were allowed to operate as different autonomous entities.
Touching on the one-off premium payment that the Mills administration promised to introduce, the Health Minister said actuarial works on the policy would be complete within the next few weeks, adding that the policy would be operational before the end of next year.
Dr Yankey also cautioned some health service providers under the NHIS who used fraudulent methods to cheat the system, adding that investigations were ongoing and anyone found wanting would be made to face the law and also had the names of their facilities struck out from the list of providers.
He took the opportunity to express gratitude to the members of the board and expressed optimism that with their varied expertise, they would work hard to ensure that Ghanaians were given better health care.
For his part, the Chairman of the board, Mr Adjaho, gave the assurance that the government would not politicise health care and added that the board members would do everything in their capacity to do what was expected of them.
He expressed the hope that the board would do its best to ensure that every Ghanaian was provided quality health care no matter where one found him or herself.