Minister of Health, Dr Benjamin Kumbuor, says he will not hesitate to set up an inquiry into claims and counter-claims associated with the operations of the National Health Insurance Scheme. He said while the National Health Insurance Authority had consistently claimed it had received enough funds to disburse, service providers, on the other hand also consistently claimed that they had not been paid for services rendered. "Not all is well with how the scheme is managed. Ghanaians need to know what is happening with the scheme," he told Parliament yesterday during question time. When Dr Matthew Prempeh (NPP MP-Manhyia), and Deputy Rankin Member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, sought to know whether the Health Minister would consider an enquiry, Dr Kumbuor replied that he would not hesitate to do so. He noted that there were mixed speculations and facts, adding the Ministry was considering the issue “and once we are clear in our minds that it is in the interest of the nation, we will act." He said the Ministry would seek to dialogue with the Committee on Health to find solutions to problems of the scheme’s cash flow. Dr Kumbuor added that the NHIA Act650 was being reviewed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the implementation of the scheme. John Agyabeng (NPP MP-Agona East) also confronted the Minister with an allegation that some of the scheme’s health care providers were trading in treasury bills with the money, thus delaying payment of claims. Dr Kumbuor said his Ministry was investigating such allegations and would come out with the findings when anything untoward was established. Answering a substantive question by Mr Agyabeng on the current state of the scheme, Dr Kumbuor said 13,840, 198 people representing 67 per cent of the national population had registered with the scheme. They include 309,110 indigents and 721,163 pregnant women who have been registered as new members under the Free-Medical Care Policy since 2008. Dr Kumbuor said the NIA had released GHc248.44 million between January and October 2009 to the scheme for claims payment. He said in tune with the goal of improved portability, the scheme was providing uniform ID Cards to subscribers, adding that about 4,500,000 ID Cards had already been produced. The Minister said the NHIA had commenced electronic claims submission and vetting on a pilot basis in partnership with Maamobi Polyclinic. He said 870 sites had been hooked up to the ICT platform, comprising all 145 district schemes, 714 provider sites and 11 NHIA sites (10 regional offices and one head office.) Dr Kumbuor also answered a question on mental health posed by Stephen Kunsu (NDC Kintampo North.) According to him, the Ministry intended overhauling mental health care to de-emphasize institutional care and rather place emphasis on community care. By that, every regional and eventually district hospitals would have a mental wing up to 20 beds. Dr Kumbuor said a Medical Assistant programme in psychiatry had started last October at the Kintampo Rural Health Training Institute adding that a programme to train community mental health officers was scheduled to start next year. The Minister noted his Ministry would build three-50-bed psychiatric hospitals in the middle and northern belts of the country so that patients who may require long-stay care will not travel all the way to Accra, Pantang and Ankaful to receive such care. Three rehabilitation centres would also be established across the country to give some handwork training to patients who had been treated and required rehabilitation for full integration into their respective communities. He said drug rehabilitation centres would also be established, adding that one had already been established at Pantang. Dr Kumbuor said the legislative framework which was receiving fine-tuning at the Attorney-General’s Department, would find legal backing to those plans to actionalize. Source: Daily Graphic