Sly Mensah debunks claims NHIA made unauthorised payment to Zoomlion under him

- NHIA Board and subsequently by
- Parliament.
Contracts against these provisions are made between the MoH and the contractor (Zoomlion in this case). Technical supervision on these contracts logically rests with MoH. NHIA has no supervisory responsibility over MOH expenditure provision in its allocation formula. Besides, all payments for MOH’s contractual obligations for which provision has been made in the NHIA budget is paid against specific request by the Minister of Health/Ministerial directive on the specific work performed and ascertained by MOH. Supervision of work for such payments rests with the MOH and not NHIA. This is why the specific requests are made by the Minister for Health. In this case the NHIA has never had any contractual relations with Zoomlion. NHIA makes payment only when directed by MOH to settle MOH’s contractual obligation to Zoomlion, which they specify is the amount of work performed for them, for which budgetary provision had been made by Government/ Parliament. All former and current CEOs work with duly issued instructions of the MoH in accordance with the law and budgetary provisions. The new NHIA law, Act 852 of 2012 has placed a 10% cap on how much provision can be made in the NHIA budget for expenditures determined by the MoH. Under my stewardship the NHIA was transformed from a mutual scheme to a truly National Scheme were card bearers or subscribers could access healthcare across the country. The scheme further secured permanency by moving all headquarters and regional offices from parasitic rental premises to the Authority’s own offices to cut off rental cost into the future. Instant biometric ID cards also replaced manual ID cards which, otherwise took over six months from registration to issuance. The establishment of claims processing centres and the introduction of Electronic Claims Management Systems also helped to inject greater efficiency in operations. The introduction of quality assurance and clinical audit regimes as well as the consolidated premium accounts into which all subscribers premiums are deposited for greater accountability further strengthen efficiency measures of the scheme. We also established a Call Center Regime which gave the subscriber a voice to log in their concerns and challenges for management decision-making. The replacement of Act 650 of 2003 with Act 852 of 2012 supported the reduction of both demand-side and supply-side moral hazards. The scheme secured international recognition with multiple international and local awards and became a hub for global knowledge sharing. The scheme continues to make further progress despite many difficulties. The net effect of all these was the rise in active membership from about 4 million in 2008 to over 11.2 million by December 2015 and an increase in utilization from less than 11 million subscribers in 2008 to over 29 million in December 2015, among others. Let us sustain the achievements and good international image of our scheme as we strive to further improve upon what we have attained. Thank you Sylvester A Mensah NDC Flagbearer Hopeful Former Chief Executive, NHIA Source: editors.3news.com | Ghana
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editors.3news.com is a writer with 3news.com. Follow him on X, @essel-issac and LinkedIn: editors.3news.com