GNA – The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) in the Upper East Region has emerged the third-best performer in membership mobilisation across the country in 2021, Mr Kasimu Abudulai, the Acting Regional Director of the Authority has said.
He said the Authority was set to achieve a national active membership of 18,681,913 and a target of 1,072,353 for the Region and disclosed that by the close of 2021, the NHIA achieved national population coverage of 16,759,158, representing 54 per cent of the population.
“As a Region, we mobilized 955,010 members, being 73 per cent of the regional population of 1,301,226. This pegs our Region as the third-best performer in membership mobilisation across the country,” he said.
Mr Abudulai was speaking at the 2021 Regional Performance Review meeting of the Authority held in Bolgatanga, the regional capital.
He said the intensity of campaigns on the use of the NHIA mobile renewal system had enhanced the membership renewal drive for members of the scheme.
“By use of the shortcode *929#, one can renew their membership via MTN and Vodafone networks without going to District offices for the same service. Thus, within the year, 430,191 members in the region renewed their membership using the shortcode,” he said.
He encouraged members of the public to take advantage of the mobile renewal code to save them the stress of joining long queues at the premises of the District Offices.
He added that apart from the Authority’s achievement in membership mobilisation, the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) of the Ghana Statistical Service puts the Region at the top of other 15 Regions with a penetrative rate of 86 per cent.
Mr Abudulai said the Ghana Card offered another opportunity to simplify the acquisition, renewal, and access to healthcare services at the respective accredited facilities.
He said in pursuance of the unification of all identity cards into a single Ghana Card, a holder of the Ghana Card could simply link their health insurance details with the Ghana Card using the same short code, *929#.
Ghana Card bearers who were not yet enrolled onto the NHIS, he noted, would not be issued with new NHIS cards.
“The person’s details are simply linked through our system to the Ghana Card, and that does it, you are good to go,” he added.
That, Mr Abudulai said saved cost to the NHIS, met government policy and eased card management by bearers, expressing worry that the Region’s response to the policy had been slow, and called on all Ghana Cardholders to take advantage of the policy to link their cards.
On credentialing facilities, he said the NHIA since early 2020, initiated a process to digitize the credential application process, “We are proud to announce that currently, all providers in the Region apply for fresh renewal or upgrade of facilities through the online application system.”
Mr Stephen Yakubu, the Upper East Regional Minister, in a speech read on his behalf, commended management and staff of the NHIA in the Region for the milestone chalked in the year under review.
He said the government had added the treatment of four childhood cancers and family planning services to the health insurance scheme benefits package as a pro-poor policy and urged all Ghanaians to take advantage of the policy to better health service delivery.
Source: Ghana News Agency
