NHIA TO AUDIT HEALTH SCHEMES (PAGE 3, JULY 18)

THE National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) is to undertake a clinical auditing of some of the insurance schemes in the Ashanti Region following suspicion concerning some fraudulent practices in their operations.
The exercise begins next week with the Asokwa Sub-Metro Mutual Health Insurance Scheme.
The Chief Executive Officer of the NHIA, Mr Sylvester Mensah, who announced this in Kumasi on Thursday, said the audit team at Asokwa would have 14 days to present its report to his outfit.
The CEO was addressing the management and staff of the various schemes in the region as part of his two-day tour of the region.
Mr Mensah said in the interim, the Asokwa Manager of the scheme, Mr Isaac Asare, had been withdrawn to the regional office of the NHIA, pending the outcome of the audit.
He said it was shocking that the Asokwa scheme, which had paid GH¢2 million as claims in 2007 when the client base was 100,000, spent over GH¢6 million on claims in 2008 with a client base of 188,000.
“The astronomical increase must be investigated,” he said.
Mr Asare, however, rejected any allegations of fraud and said the records were there for all to verify. He told journalists after the meeting that the 2008 audited accounts of the scheme were unquestionable and that he had nothing to fear.
Mr Mensah told the meeting that the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was a very important programme that the nation could not afford to toy with.
Consequently, his administration would only work with people who were ready to put in their best.
He said the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sections of the various schemes had been found to be very problematic, resulting in delays in payment, the issuing of cards, among other things.
As a result, the authority would soon begin the retraining of staff to enable them to meet the challenges ahead, he said.
Mr Mensah stated that the government’s agenda of providing quality health care for the people was genuine, adding that the NHIS was one area that would be used to achieve that objective.
He reassured the staff that no one would be sacked because of political allegiance, something that received wild applause from the staff.