The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority, Dr Senanu Kwesi Djokoto, has hinted that his outfit will introduce new tariffs by 2026, following concerns from service providers.
He indicated that the Authority is engaging all stakeholders, including the World Bank, to ensure tariffs match the cost of operations, smooth administration of the health facilities, and ultimately enhance care delivery.
He made this known while addressing the 5th Annual General Conference of the Private Health Facilities Association of Ghana in Ho, in the Volta Region.
“From last year to this year, we did a survey, checked the prices, sat down with all the experts, and calculated how much they spend to render services. The cost of medication, the overhead cost, how much it takes to run a facility, the electricity bill, the water bill, and the cost of labour.”
“All these are now calculated into the reviewed tariffs. We did this together with the World Bank. Our CEO and the Ministry of Health are working closely to engage all stakeholders so that by the end of the year the new tariff will be rolled out”, he said.
He expressed optimism that the introduction of the new tariff would help augment care delivery by providing sufficient funding for the operations of service providers.
Dr Djokoto warned against the extortion of clients where health facilities charge “illegal fees” for services that have already been covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme.
A special guest at the event, the Chief Executive Officer of Cassona Global Imaging Limited, John Chigbu, asserted that the country’s healthcare delivery system is challenged by a lack of advanced machinery and human resources.
He grieved how his mother died during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the unavailability of proper diagnostic machines to help identify the cause of her illness for treatment.
He, however, said his outfit aims to tackle the challenge by undertaking capacity-building programs for health practitioners and providing modern diagnostic and treatment machinery to augment care delivery in the country.
“The modern equipment now comes with modern technologies like AI. Most of the doctors you see, a radiologist, have never even seen this equipment. They went to school and trained with equipment that is ten to twenty years old, how can they operate that equipment?”
“So, training is one thing that we are doing. What I came to do is to provide affordable equipment, make sure we have local engineers to fix them, and train the medical professionals on how to use it”, he stressed.
The National President of the Association, Dr Kwame Buebeng Frimpong, emphasized the need for enhanced collaboration between private facilities and the government towards achieving universal health coverage.
He entreated the government to post health workers to the various private hospitals just as it does for the Christian mission hospitals to improve care delivery.
He also called for impartiality in regulating the various facilities, indicating that regulatory institutions are focused only on private health facilities leaving the public facilities.
The 5th Annual General Conference of the Private Health Facilities Association of Ghana gave stakeholders a platform to discuss issues affecting healthcare delivery and iron out possible solutions.