Refund to suppliers credit in NHIS require discussion

Mampong (Ash), Oct. 24, GNA - A research team has stated that the key issue about the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) which needed to be discussed dispassionately instead of the funding that had generated so much heated debate was the matching of refund to suppliers credit.

The research team said it found out that the period between refund mechanism and suppliers credit line could collapse the scheme. Making the research findings known in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Asante-Mampong on Thursday, Mr Jacob Amoah, a Pharmacist at the Mampong Government Hospital and Head of the research team, said the study was based on Civil Servants Health Insurance Scheme (CSHIS) for the past 18 months.

For example the findings showed that it took the management of the scheme an average of five months to release funds to the hospital whilst the suppliers credit took one month.

He said the long period between the refund and supply had depleted the capital base of the hospital.

Mr Amoah said this situation was making it increasingly difficult for the hospital to provide the expected quality health service to patients.

The Mampong experience cuts across the remaining 17 districts in Ashanti operating the CSHIS, he said, adding that the issue will have a direct bearing on the NHIS, since the scheme was modelled on the CSHIS. Mr Amoah said the Mampong Hospital, which started operating the scheme with a capital base of 100 million cedis, now had only 60 million cedis due to the identified problem.

He said the CSHIS at the Mampong Hospital operated with 15 million cedis a month and that given the current state of affairs, there was the likelihood of the operations of the scheme in the Sekyere district grinding to a halt in the next four months if the situation was not reversed.

Mr Amoah said consequently, there was the need for measures to be taken to match the credit line given to care providers with that of suppliers.