The Chief Executive of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr. Da-Costa Aboagye, has assured that his organization is collaborating closely with the Ministry of Finance to settle debts owed to health facilities.
Despite reports suggesting that the NHIA has accumulated significant debts to health facilities over several months, Dr Aboagye, in an interview stated that payments for November are currently being processed for payment in April.
He commended the government for maintaining the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), noting that they owe only two months of payments to higher-tier hospitals.
“Government is really doing very well in terms of the National Health Insurance Scheme. When you submit your claim as a hospital, we vet, so you see that some of the months, some hospitals may not pass the validation. Because they have not submitted the right things they needed to. Once they submit it, we pay it the next month.
“We’re on course, it’s not our fault that we have not actually paid. We only owe two months, that is November, and December 2023, but we’re even paying November this month [April]. Almost all the higher tier hospitals, we owe them two months. But that is not bad, we’re working with the finance ministry, they will give us money.
“I have the credentials on my table, we will process to pay the November, but I think we will clear the backlog. I’m looking up to the government to give me money to pay providers. I have all the assurances from the finance ministry that they will pay us.”
He mentioned that they will review tariffs to commiserate with the current economic conditions of Ghanaians.
“There will be mechanisms, making sure that we review the tariffs to commiserate with current economic conditions. Once we do that, we will seek automatic price adjustment which will be guaranteed for the facilities, even if prices go up you’re secured,” he said.
