The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has recorded an improvement in the usage of the Mobile Renewal Service (MRS).
The latest summary report indicates an increase of 8.2 percent for the month of June 2020 which stood at 482,314 is the total number of Mobile Renewals as compared to 445,563 in the month of May 2020.
The usage of Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Mobile Renewal Service has been increasing on a monthly basis since the lockdown was lifted.
Due to COVID-19 and the need to stay away from crowds, people have resorted to using the MRS.
With the exception of Bono Region, all 15 regions recorded increases between the months of May and June 2020. The cumulative number of Mobile Renewals from January 2019 to June 2020 was 8,581,388.
Categorization
In general, 45.5 percent of NHIS active members under 18 (children), category recorded the highest number of Mobile Renewals followed 42.7 percent of the informal category representing people who are not contributors to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).
With 0.8 percent, the SSNIT Pensioners category recorded the lowest number of Mobile Renewals for the month of June 2020.
Management urges NHIS active members to continue using the Mobile Renewal platform by dialling the short code *929# on any mobile phone with money in the wallet.
Genesis In line with government’s digitization drive, on December 19, 2018, Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia launched the Mobile Renewal Service to make the NHIS more accessible to its members and also improve upon the Scheme’s financial management.
The initiative marked the beginning of the total digitalization of the system of enrolment of new NHIS clients, renewal of membership, submission, processing and payment of claims to support efforts of the government towards universal health coverage of the country.
Background
In line with government’s digitization drive, on December 19, 2018, Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia launched the Mobile Renewal Service to make the NHIS more accessible to its members and also improve upon the Scheme’s financial management.
The initiative marked the beginning of the total digitalization of the system of enrolment of new NHIS clients, renewal of membership, submission, processing and payment of claims to support efforts of the government towards universal health coverage of the country.
Relevance
No more long queues at the NHIS District offices thereby creating enough space for staff to attend to pregnant and indigent members as well conduct community public education and outreach programmes.
The Scheme has become more attractive as members who left the Scheme are returning thereby increasing the number of persons being covered in line with Universal Health Coverage (UHC) vision of the government.
Combined with the generation of E-Receipts, the much-touted innovation tracks payments to streamline the operations of the NHIS and make it more efficient.
The Mobile Membership Renewal Service puts a check on providers by reducing the chances of false claims generation through the option available to members to confirm or deny attendance after every facility visit requiring the use of the NHIS cards.
Simplified Offline Verification allows NHIS provider facilities to verify membership validity with the aid of a mobile phone leading to prompt payment of claims.