NHIA kicks against of misuse of insurance money

THE National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) says recent auditing conducted within the various district schemes has revealed that about 20 per cent of funds meant for claims and re-insurance have been wrongly used for administrative purposes.
That, according to the authority, could partly be blamed for some of the problems associated with the non-payment of claims to service providers under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Addressing a staff durbar in Accra yesterday, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NHIA, Mr Sylvester Mensah, said the use of claim funds for administrative purposes, which could be described as a leak, had been stopped to ensure that money meant for specific items was disbursed appropriately.
He explained that before that decision was taken, scheme officials were withdrawing money and disbursing it any how.
He said the NHIA would next year put in place additional measures to further eliminate leaks which had previously been going on within the schemes, adding that any scheme manager who misapplied money meant for claims would be sanctioned.
Mr Mensah ordered that all schemes were to operate not more than two bank accounts and said currently some of the schemes had about five separate bank accounts, a situation which created room for financial indiscipline.
The CEO said a series of clinical auditing so far conducted had shown that a lot of rot existed in the system, adding that so far eight scheme managers had been interdicted, while 20 other staff members against whom adverse findings had made were awaiting sanctions from the authority.
Additionally, he said, four public hospitals, four private hospitals and four mission hospitals would be suspended before the end of the year.
The CEO announced a number of changes and transfers at the NHIA head office, as well as regional offices, a move which, he explained, was meant to strengthen the various units and directorates.
Mr Mensah stated that 2010 was expected to be a busy year for the schemes, adding that the authority would put up buildings to provide office accommodation for each region and provide vehicles to ensure efficiency.
Within the last few months, he said, the NHIA had established new divisions within it as part of efforts to enhance its operations and commended the staff for working so hard to move the NHIS forward.
The Chairman for the occasion, Dr Nicholas Tweneboa, urged all stakeholders to play their respective parts to ensure the sustenance of the scheme, which was established to take care of the health needs of Ghanaians.
Dr Tweneboa, who is the Director of Operations of the NHIA, said figures on registered members of the NHIS were encouraging and explained that the situation implied that Ghanaians were happy with the scheme.