MEMBERSHIP OF TANO SOUTH MHIS DROPS (PAGE 23)

THERE is a high drop-out rate of membership of the Tano South Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS).
This situation has come about as many of the people, who register with the scheme in a particular year, fail to renew their membership the following year with the reason that either they did not fall sick or they had their major ailments treated the previous year.
The trend is seriously affecting the revenue generation by the management of the scheme.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the scheme, Mr Robert Adu-Agyei, made this known at Bechem when addressing the second annual general meeting of the scheme.
He also stated that improvement in the quality of health care had been a difficult issue to resolve.
Mr Adu-Agyei, however, gave the assurance that “our goal of achieving an improved customer service and satisfaction requires that we collaborate with our health care providers as much as possible to meet client expectations”.
He stated that the lack of accredited pharmacies and chemical sellers in the district made it difficult to get prescribed drugs for members of the scheme who did not get their medicines at the health facilities.
The chairman gave the assurance that with the introduction of the new National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) membership identification cards, the members would renew their confidence and interest in the system, stressing that it would help in the achievement of set targets.
He said the scheme would continue to employ innovative strategies to overcome any challenges that might confront it so as to increase membership to more than 70 per cent of the district population of 71,902 by the year 2010.
Mr Adu-Agyei added that management would work hard to reduce drop-out rate to below 10 per cent in the next three years.
According to him, the scheme should work together with its health care providers to ensure the quality of delivery at the various health care facilities and educate its members on their obligations under the scheme when they visited those facilities.
The chairman indicated that the board and management of the scheme would avail themselves of the opportunities in the implementation of the uniform technology platform by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and provide its members with the portable identity cards, which could be used anywhere in the country.
Mr Adu-Agyei disclosed that a total of 30,806 people enrolled with the scheme in the previous year, with children under 18 years constituting 15,587.
He added that the total hospital attendance increased by 14.2 per cent from 37,225 in 2006 to 42,513 in 2007.
Mr Adu-Agyei gave the figure of outpatients in 2006 as 35,932, which increased to 41,019 last year, while in-patients attendance also increased from 1,293 to 1,494 in 2007 during the same period.
He said the total claims paid over the period also increased by 29.6 per cent from GH¢239,460.90 in 2006 to GH¢310,223.71 in 2007.