The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) says its donation of GH¢250,000 to the COVID-19 National Trust Fund falls within its mandate and has thus described as unfair, the criticism the gesture has attracted.
It said under normal circumstances as is seen in Europe, the authority should have been at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus situation but since it did not have the capacity to do that, it was right to support government’s effort with ‘’our widow’s mite.”
The Chief Executive of the NHIA, Dr Lydia Dsane-Selby, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said: “Ideally, we should have been the ones picking up the bills for the COVID-19 treatment, that is if everyone was on the scheme and we had full Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for COVID-19.
“Unfortunately, only about 45 per cent of Ghanaians are active members of the National Health Insurance Scheme. And given the emergency nature of the situation, the government is bearing the cost so we thought it right to support with our widow’s mite.
“The ability to control the COVID-19 pandemic within the country would eventually protect the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) in terms of reduced claims from service providers,” she stressed.
Donation
Last Wednesday, Dr Dsane-Selby led the NHIA to donate a cheque for GH¢250,000 to the COVID-19 National Trust Fund.
However, the gesture was criticised by many people who said it was ‘wrong and misplaced’, given that the scheme was struggling to be up to date with the payment of claims from service providers.
IMANI
Mr Franklin Cudjoe, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, described the action as worrying, since the scheme was struggling to keep up with payments to health service providers.
He said as a state agency that did not make profit from its operations but ran on funds from contributors and government support, it was out of place for it to donate as a corporate social responsibility gesture.
Mr Cudjoe questioned the rationale behind the corporate social responsibility concept, stressing that it was wrong for the NHIA which was a non-profit entity to use funds allotted it for its operations to make a donation.
“Under what circumstance did the NHIA give the donation as it is not an entity that makes profit?
“Management is yet to indicate where the money came from, but given what is happening to the scheme and how service providers have been struggling to get reimbursed, that gesture is misplaced,” Mr Cudjoe stressed.
He suggested that the donation should be returned to the NHIA to be used to settle the debt owed the service providers.
Private Health Facilities
The President of the Private Health Facilities Association of Ghana, Samuel Boakye Donkor, said it was “bad and painful” that the NHIA would make such a huge donation despite its high indebtedness to private health facilities.
“Is it not ironic that the NHIA gives back to the government who just months ago provided the funds for it to settle the debt owed service providers after several desperate appeals that their facilities were in distress?
“The authority just recently received money from government to help it settle some of the amounts owed us and they have given that money back to the government.
“No one is saying that the authority should not give towards a good cause, but it becomes a problem when the scheme is struggling and service providers, are desperately crying for their funds to be paid, some in arrears from as far back as February 2019.
“What has happened can be likened to someone owing you and telling you he does not have enough yet you find out that he is throwing a lavish party,” Mr Donkor said.
CHAG
The Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG), one of the major service providers of the scheme, declined to comment on the issue.
The Executive Director, Mr Peter Kwame Yeboah, told the Daily Graphic that the association’s position was not to make any public comment on the issue.
However, some of the members who spoke to the Daily Graphic, described the action as unfair as the money could have been used to settle some of the debt owed it and which had crippled some of them to the point of even
having their electricity supply disconnected for piled-up bills.
Former CEO
Mr Sylvester Mensah, in a facebook post, wrote: “I was momentarily dazed when I saw the NHIS make a huge donation of GHc250k to the COVID-19 fund during the Minister’s briefing session on national television. At a time when the scheme has an average payment arrears of nine months to healthcare providers across the country?
“Granted that this gesture was truly a life-line for the containment strategy, perhaps it could have been done on the quiet but even that, no!
“Is it for personal political reach or it serves the interest of the critical stakeholders of the scheme?
What signal does it provide even to government – that the scheme has excess funds to spare?
“Indeed, this decision is not a product of a sufficient thinking process; it is not well thought through; it further undermines the precarious situation the scheme is experiencing and only serves to deepen the mistrust and frustration among healthcare providers. Bad decision, bad move!”
NHIA mandateDr Dsane-Selby explained that the donation fell within the mandate of the authority under the National Health Insurance ACT,2012 (ACT 852) Section 40 (2c&d) which encouraged it to carry out some level of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) which, among others, include the use of some of the NHIF to facilitate the provision of or access to healthcare services and to invest in any other facilitating programme to promote access to health service.
That includes the payments for vaccines, immunisation and malaria prevention among others within the support for public health care.
She said the support for the COVID-19 efforts by government, thus fell within this category as it would be used to provide health care for those affected.
The Chief Executive said while the amount donated was significant, it was only five per cent of the authority’s yearly budget for its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
“The NHIA’s donation of GH¢250,000 to the COVID-19 Relief Fund, though significant, represents less than five per cent of the entire Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Budget for 2020 which is about GH¢5 million,” she stressed.
Claims payment
Dr Dsane-Selby further said so far this year, an amount of GH¢400m had been paid as claims and emphasised that the amount donated was only the equivalent of 0.06 per cent of the claims.
Asked if it was wrong for the service providers to complain, since they had not received their payments, the NHIA boss said it was unfortunate because even if it had decided to share the donation among the service providers as payment for claims, each of them would have received GH¢50.
“The authority will always owe service providers, but we are also working hard to be up to date with payment and narrow the gap.
“It is unfortunate and disappointing that such a kind gesture has attracted such a backlash,” she said.
Source: Fiilafmonline/Graphic
