NHIA management staff hold strategic meeting (August 31, 2009)

THE Management staff of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has held a three-day strategic meeting to set the tone for the implementation of a one-time-premium payment policy expected to take off by December, 2010.
One area which is likely to be looked at is the autonomy given to the individual District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes (DMHISs) under Act 650, which limits the role of the NHIA in its duty as the regulatory body.
Addressing participants at the strategic meeting which took place at Sogakope in the Volta Region, the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, said the one-time-premium policy was to ensure universality of health care for residents in Ghana and at the same time recover some of the cost.
He said to get things moving, there should be some organisational restructuring at all levels of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
He observed that the changes were likely to pose some challenges since currently the management staff were used to being the final decision makers at certain levels of operations of the scheme.
Dr Kunbuor expressed the hope that the seminar would provide the opportunity for members to discuss issues bordering on the pending changes and went further to call for structures at the workplace to allow the staff to communicate effectively to avoid conflict and misunderstanding.
Stressing the need for the changes to ensure the success of the new policy, he said, “we need to put new structures in place and review old ones as we go along”.
He reminded the participants that the policy of one-time-premium payment was a promise that must be delivered, adding that it was up to the managers to ensure that it was effectively implemented.
“While I congratulate you on your effort to shape the strategy, let me be quick to state that as scheme managers, you need to understand that the real work actually starts with the implementation of the policy,” he stressed.
The acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NHIA, Mr Sylvester A. Mensah, said by December 31, 2010, the authority was expected to have achieved a health insurance system that guaranteed one-time premium payment and a fully portable and sustainable scheme supported and driven by robust ICT solution.
He also touched on the need for a revised legal regime that would address most of the internal, horizontal and vertical inconsistencies that had characterised the current legal regime; an entirely restructured architecture of the authority and scheme; an improved communication strategy to effectively market the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS); and an authority that was focused on its business.
For his part, the Chairman of the National Health Insurance Council, Mr Doe Adjaho, said that the seminar was appropriate as it would set the tone for refocusing on the overall goals of securing universal, equitable and affordable health care services for residents in Ghana.
Mr Adjaho, who is also the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, said the Council was interested in seeing how the management strategised towards achieving the objectives of the NHIS as set out in Act 650 and the policy change that the government of Professor J.E.A. Mills required.
He also touched on a legislative review involving the scheme and said it would set the tone for moving the NHIS to a higher level of efficiency and portability for the well-being of the average Ghanaian.