The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is working towards resurrecting the trust of the subscriber. Mr. Mohammed Abdul-Salim, senior monitoring and evaluation manager at the NHIS regional office, gave the assurance Tuesday.

He attributed minimal subscribers trust in the agency to huge premiums — charges — which had led to subscribers unwilling to re-activate their cards. This, he said, cost the NHIS not to meet its set target in previous years.

Efforts, he said, are being made to make changes in terms of reimbursement. Speaking to Zaa News in an interview, Mr Salim revealed that a lot of institutions that extort monies from subscribers on the excuse of unpaid claims turn out to be public health providers.

He, however, admitted that some of the extortions are not formally institutionalized at the hospitals but are perpetrated by individuals who extort monies from unsuspecting clients when they turn out for service to be rendered.

He therefore encouraged clients to report any misappropriation by service providers for necessary action to be taken. Indigents such as the less privileged, persons living with disabilities (PWDs), mentally challenged people, who through partnership with social welfare are identified to be poor, and people who are in orphanages, according to Mr Salim, are supposed to be captured for free under the NHIS.

By: Lillian Walter