The National Catholic Health Service (NCHS) has expressed worry over the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) persistent delays in reimbursing their institutions for the services rendered to their clients.
Our institutions persistently reel under the pain of delayed payment for services rendered and these delays affect our ability to plan, develop and expand our services, it said.
Most Reverend Joseph Afrifa-Agyekum, Bishop of the Koforidua Diocese and the Episcopal Chairman for Health of the Catholic Church, said this at the 11th Annual Conference of the NCHS in Koforidua.
He said the situation did not only stifle and choke the Catholic health institutions but also severely affects their ability to serve the many rural communities which require their services.
We wish to reiterate that our relationship with the NHIA is a contractual one, with the NHIA as a buyer of our services.
It is not just contractual in nature but a commercial one too, therefore it is about time we moved away from the niceties and get real with the effects of how we have managed this relationship these past 10 years, he said.
Most Rev Afrifa-Agyekum urged the NHIA to begin asserting the NCHS contractual rights under the NHIS so that the institutions did not get short-changed as we are experiencing now.
He also urged the NHIA to put in place mechanisms to honour their time of payment as enshrined in the contracts or the design of the Scheme and to provide financial cushion, in the context of economic realities, to compensate the institutions for those long delays.
Most Rev Afrifa-Agyekum however assured the NHIA that the NCHS would continue to play their role as partners and expressed the hope that the NHIA would as well respect the relationship and all responsibilities that flow from it.
He commended staff of the NCHS for their commitment to ensuring that their clients are well taken care of and urged them to continue to explore, innovate, test and share workable ideas to promote the Christ health ministry.
The conference said the NCHS provides healthcare for over 27 percent of all Out-Patient Department (OPD) and in-patients in the country.
Mr George A. Adjei, Director of the NCHS, pledged his outfit’s commitment to reduce harm and error, improve response time, reduce waiting time and to improve processes in the care pathway and community health interventions.
We assure the Bishops Conference that their institutions will continue to be places of hope for patients and communities, he said.
Source: www.ghananewsagency.org