National Health Insurance clients who were forced to pay monies before receiving treatment at the Tamale West Hospital, One Heart Health Centre and Global Medical Laboratory of the Tamale Metropolis in the Northern Region have been given back their monies.
They were given amounts ranging from Ghc250, Ghc380, and Ghc400.The money were refunded through the intervention of the management of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the Tamale Metropolis.
Tamale West Hospital, One Heart Health Centre, global Medical Laboratory, Tamale Central Hospital, SDA Hospital, Kabsad Hospital, and Tamale West Hospital, officials were accused of extorting money from patients under the NHIS Medicines which were covered by the NHIS were sold to them even though they were NHIS subscribers.
It would be recalled that, the management of the Tamale Metropolitan Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) led by its manager Mr. Abdul-Ganiyu Ahmed, on October 31, 2023, exposed these facilities for charging patients under NHIS illegal fees.
This was made known at a stakeholders engagement over the growing trend of out-of-pocket payments demanded from members of the scheme on Tuesday October 31, 2023.
Assistant Public Relations Officer of the Health Insurance Scheme in the Tamale Metropolis, Alhassan Osman Baki, who led the staff of NHIS to monitor the disbursement of the money at the premises of One Heart Health Centre on Wednesday November 15, 2023, said management of the scheme would not relent on its efforts, but will ensure all monies taking illegally from NHIS clients will be refund to them.
He further explained that, “now that we know that people are taking money illegally, we will continue to monitor the system to see how best they are given to our clients”.
On her part, the Accountant of One Heart Health facility, Asana Napari, said the monies were collected through a system failure but not the individual practice at the facility.
“We weren’t taken people’s monies that are not supposed to be taking. It’s just our system that failed us. We have refunded the money that our system took. It was the system that took the money not we the individuals in the facility. We are working to correct it, and we are also working to comply with the agreement we signed with the NHIS leadership in the Metropolis”, she assured.
Speaking to diamondfmonline.com after taking their monies some of the patients who could not hide their happiness thanked the management of NHIS in the Tamale Metropolis for ensuring their monies were paid back to them.
Story By: Alhassan Yakubu |www.diamondfmonline.com |Ghana.
