The Private Health Facilities Association of Ghana says its leadership is engaging the National Health Insurance Authority over arrears owed its members by the latter.
The meeting comes on the back of threats by the Association to stop rendering services to clients of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) if the debts are not cleared.
According to the Association, the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) owes its members seven months of unpaid services.
They lament that this has resulted in their inability to procure medical and nonmedical consumables, and also pay salaries.
In an interview with Citi News, the President of the Private Health Facilities Association, Samuel Okyere Donkor, said he is hopeful that their concerns will be addressed.
“There are some interventions being arranged. The NHIA wants to give us some money. So we are waiting for the money. No one has started withdrawing services. It will start very soon if we don’t get the money. If they pay the money, we will pay the pharmaceutical companies, so they give us drugs again to work. That is what we are trying to work out. As we speak, we are in a meeting with the NHIA after which we will see the outcome of it.”
The private facilities are demanding that the NHIA pays claims owed to its members.
The Association says the last time its members received reimbursement of funds under the NHIS was in February 2021, a situation members say is affecting their finances.
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According to the group, the delay in payments to healthcare service providers has resulted in their inability to procure medical and nonmedical consumables like drugs, PPE, disinfectants amongst others.
The President of the Private Health Facilities Association, Samuel Okyere Donkor, says all engagements with the NHIA to demand reimbursement of the monies have not yielded positive results.
“We don’t manufacture drugs and so the manufacturers are saying if we don’t bring money, they will not supply us. We don’t have anything to work with. We, the private health facilities, pay our own bills, salaries, and all that. Some of us owe our staff for about three months and some of them have threatened to take us to court, others are threatening a demonstration. Things are getting worse and the government must pay us so that we can pay our staff and pay our bills,” he said.
He added that private health facilities across the country will be forced to shut down their facilities as a result of the delay in payment of claims.
It has set November 5, 2021, as the ultimatum for the government to pay them their monies.
“[This decision] is going to affect everyone, especially the poor and those in the villages. We can’t continue like this because we are suffering,” he added.