The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Birim South District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (BSDMHIS) in the Eastern Region, Rev Kwaku Kwarteng, has expressed concern about the abuse of the scheme by some clients. He stressed that if the manner in which some of the clients hopped from one facility to the other, by astronomically swelling their medical bills and threatening the scheme's sustainability was not arrested, the whole system would eventually grind to a halt. Rev Kwarteng expressed this concern at the scheme's first annual general meeting at Akyem Oda. He stated that the current premium and registration fees of GH¢l0 (¢100,000) would have to be adjusted upward to enable the scheme to deliver. "We want to encourage individual clients to look at their regenerative health concept critically to keep them healthy at all times to avoid attending health facilities regularly," Rev. Kwarteng stated that the National Health Insurance Council (NHIC) should also prevail upon the Ministry of Health (MoH) to embark on preventive healthcare campaigns, instead of the curative. He stressed the need for service providers to incorporate psychotherapy into the healthcare delivery, adding that the MoH should also employ psychologists and attach them to the various hospitals. According to Rev Kwarteng, the BSDMHIS was committed to fashioning out its own unique strategies to ensure the smooth implementation of the scheme. He mentioned some of the scheme's achievements as the extension of healthcare services outside the district, addressing most of the teething problems of the scheme, massive increment of registered members and the implementation of the benefit package. In an address read by the Greater Accra Regional Manager of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Mr Gabriel Amoako, on behalf of the Chief Executive Officer of the NHIS, Mr Ras Boateng, he said his outfit had responded to the appeals by the various schemes by supplying them with computers and brand new vehicles to facilitate their operations. He said zonal management teams had been hired to bring the council closer to the schemes, adding that they would reside in the regional capitals to monitor and evaluate the schemes. The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Birim South, Mr Frank Kwame Busumtwi, stressed that the government's aim of introducing the NHIS was to replace the "cash and carry" system, which made it difficult for the majority of the people, especially the rural dwellers to get access to healthcare. He advised subscribers and service providers not to do anything to abuse the scheme. Mr Busumtwi appealed to the NHIS, as a matter of urgency, to release the subsidies to the scheme to enable it pay claims on time. He commended the board of directors and the staff of the scheme for the able manner they steered the affairs of the scheme. Source: Daily Graphic