The acting Deputy Director, Clinical Care, of the Central Regional Health Directorate, Alhaji Ananga Yamyolia, has advocated the review of tariffs on drugs under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). He explained that the non-review of the tariffs had created artificial shortage of some drugs under the NHIS. Alhaji Yamyolia was speaking at the opening of a forum of the Inter-Agency Steering Committee of the scheme in Accra Wednesday. The forum, attenged by representatives of health care providers, service providers and scheme managers drawn from the region, was to deliberate on achievements made under the Information Communications Technology (lCT) component of the scheme. It was also to create a platform for participants to look at the performance of the various schemes in the region. Alhaji Yamyolia said that even though the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) was required to review the tariffs quarterly, it had not done so. The review of the tariffs, he argued would make it more realistic to the changing trend and said that a proposal on the review had been presented to the NHIA. Alhaji Yamyolia also expressed concern about the use of funds from the regional medical stores in financing new health facilities in the region. He called for the provision of a reliable claim system for the various health insurance schemes in addition to the establishment of a stable NHIS claim offices in the hospitals. The regional manager of the NHIS, Emmanuel Badu, said the ICT component was to link all the schemes in the region to allow data usage by all the centres. He said most centres were identified for not using the ICT system because they said it was too slow. The Central Regional Minister, Mrs. Ama Benyiwa Doe expressed government's commitment to improving the nation's health sector. Source: Ghanaian Times