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Inflated bills cause delays in
insurance payments for hospitals
Koforidua, July 20, Ghanadot/GNA - The Manager of the New
Juaben Mutual Health Insurance Scheme, Mr Otti Frimpong, has
blamed service providers for the delay in the payment of the
bills they submitted to the District Mutual Health Insurance
schemes.
He said often the service providers inflated the service
charges.
Mr Frimpong said the schemes had to invite the officials of
the service providers or the hospitals to a discussion on
the bills submitted.
He said such frequent discussions and the poor staffing of
the claims department of the schemes delayed payment of
bills and lead to compilation.
He was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Koforidua
in reaction to the complains that some of the schemes were
owing the Eastern Regional Hospital over three billion cedis
as at the end of June and this was likely to affect the
quality of service offered by the hospital.
Mr Frimpong said if the hospitals wanted to increase the
cost of their services due to an increase in the prices of
inputs, there was the need for them to call on the
management of the schemes for negotiations.
He said the schemes would not agree to any unilateral
decisions on prices taken by the service providers.
Mr Frimpong said the scheme had not been able to honour 30
per cent of the monthly bills submitted by the Eastern
Regional Hospital.
Mr Frimpong said the scheme had received the June bill from
the Regional Hospital and would ensure that it paid 70 per
cent of the bill as agreed with the service providers while
the remaining 30 percent would be vetted before payment was
made.
Early this month, GNA received a report that District Mutual
Health Insurance schemes that received services at the
Eastern Regional Hospital, Koforidua, owe the hospital over
three billion cedis as at the end of June this year.
The report indicated that the situation was affecting the
smooth operations of the hospital as its suppliers were
threatening to withdraw their services because of the
inability of the hospital to honour its schedules of
payment.
The report expressed the fear that the hospital would be
forced to withdraw its services to the defaulting schemes
that had registered with it.
Reacting to the report the Director of the hospital, Dr
Obeng Apori, denied that the hospital was planning to
withdraw its service to the schemes.
He confirmed that the schemes owe the hospital over three
billion cedis but explained that members of the scheme who
had paid their premiums had honoured their obligations to
the schemes and so it would be unfair for the hospital to
refuse to provide them with the services that they required.
Dr Apori however blamed the management of the schemes and
the National Health Insurance Council for failing to honour
their obligations to the service providers.
GNA.
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