Health Insurance Personnel Ask For Service Conditions

By Stephen Kwabena Effah
Thursday, 06 July 2006 (Page 3)

Managers of the District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (DMHIS) have called on the National Health Insurance Council (NHIC) to come up with conditions of service for the employees of the scheme.

They explained that the employees of the scheme were not being motivated enough in their work because of the lack of conditions of service.

The call was made at a two-day workshop for scheme managers, information systems managers and claims managers of the DMHIS.

The workshop, organized by the NHIC Secretariat, in collaboration with the Institute of Local Government Studies, is intended to build the capacity of the managers in claims adjudication and to create a platform for discussion on efficient claims management system for the National Health Insurance Scheme.

It is also expected to provide an opportunity for the participants to enhance their knowledge on stakeholder relationship management for the successful implementation of the DMHIS, and discuss the role of appropriate information systems and technology in medical claims processing.

The participants expressed concern about the high charges at mission hospitals, lack of computers and delays in the issuance of identification cards for registered members of the scheme.

They therefore appealed to the NHIC to provide vehicles and other logistics to enable them to perform their functions satisfactorily to ensure the success of the health insurance scheme.

The Executive Secretary of the NHIC, Ras Boateng, said in an interview that the council has “engaged a consultant to help design human resource policies to guide the day-to-day running of the health insurance scheme programme.”

This will include a manual which will guide the employment and total management of the scheme.

On the issue of logistics, he indicated that the council has gone through a procurement process to acquire computers and vehicles for all the scheme offices to enhance their activities.

The council has already distributed 350 computers to some of the offices and will soon acquire 800 more computers and 140 vehicles, he said.

Mr. Boateng who opened the workshop said it forms part of the council’s efforts to ensure sustainability of funds derived from subscribers and government to manage the scheme especially in the payment of claims.

He said that the collection of contributions from members and the total efficiency in processing and management of claims from service providers is key to the survival and sustainability of the DMHIS.

When fully operational, he said, claims could account for 70 per cent of the volume of work of the DMHIS and therefore tasked the managers to perform their work with the highest efficiency.

Mr.Boateng also spoke about the collection of contributions from the informal sector which he described as vital for building a sustainable fund for the schemes and urged the managers to persuade even the poor to pay at least the minimum premium to access free health care for a whole year.