The Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr.Anthony Nsiah Asare, has warned that punitive sanctions would be applied to any Manager or Management of any of the public healthcare facilities who charges National Health Insurance subscriber monies considered as co-payment for healthcare services provided patients.
According to the Director General, it is only Parliament that can approve fees and taxes in any form after due process has been adhered to.
He said charging additional monies from healthcare seekers bearing valid NHIS Card is illegal.
Dr. Nsiah Asare sounded the warning during interactions with staff of the Nkawie/Toase Hospital and the Government Health Centre at Akropong in the Atwima Nwabiagya North district.
It formed part of a familiarization tour by members of the Ghana Health Service Council and some management staff of selected public health facilities in the Ashanti region.
Led by their Chairman, Dr.Yaw Yeboah, the Council members visited the Nkawie/Toase Hospital and the Koben CHPS Compound in the Atwima Nwabiagya Municipality as well as the Akropong Health Centre.
Ashanti is the 5th region toured by the Council which will end with a visit to the Ashanti Regional Hospital at Kyirapatre in the newly created Asokwa Municipality.
They inspected the state of available facilities at the centres toured and listened to concerns of the staff.
Dr.Nsiah Asare disclosed that the National Health Insurance Authority has cleared all claims owed NHIA-accredited facilities from 2016 to February this year with arrangement being made to reimburse the claims for March to August this year.
This will pave the way for restoration of the mandatory three-months maximum period for claims payment by the Authority.
He said government has reduced the prices on NHIS drugs list due to the abolition of the 17 and a half per cent VAT charges on the cost.
The Director General announced that government will build a storey building for Maternity and Emergency Centre for the Nkawie/Toase Hospital and that one more medical doctor will soon be posted there to beef up the medical team.
The Council Chairman, Dr.Yaw Yeboah, mentioned the Koforidua Hospital, Bongo and Nkawie/Toase District Hospitals as the best ran facilities in all the regions toured so far and commended the staff and management for making judicious use of the available scarce resources.
He commended particularly the Nkawie/Toase hospital for not recording any maternal death in the last three years while the cases of neonatal mortality consistently reduced during the period.
