USAID Endorse NHIS Capitation Programme

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has endorsed the NHIS capitation programme being piloted in the Ashanti Region. The capitation payment system albeit criticized by many, has been piloted in the Ashanti Region since 2012 as a policy intended to complement other provider payment methods currently being used by the NHIA. Under capitation, members of the NHIS would select their preferred health facility, which would be responsible for their primary healthcare needs. Under the scheme, payment will be provided per head of subscribers to their chosen providers. A cardinal objective of the scheme is to bring clients closer to their selected health care givers to offer them ample dedicated time to interact with clients and educate them on preventive health care, leading to improvement in health care delivery. But health providers and the public alike have variously complained the system is rather undermining health care delivery in the region. Their major concern has largely got to do with inadequacy of the amounts paid to health facilities who complain they stand to lose as they incur losses running down their health facilities. However, the Director of Health at USAID Ghana, Akua Kwarteng Addo, speaking with Ultimate Radio�s, Nana Oye Diabene, indicated the policy was a needful addition to Ghana�s stride at offering a comprehensive health insurance scheme to the citizenry. �Capitation is one of the approaches that can increase efficiency and reduce cost and any country that is implementing a health insurance policy must strive to do that� she said. She however admitted that must be ample communication and education to the providers and the population to understand the concept and benefits of the program needed. She disagreed with the several calls asking for the programme to be scrapped suggesting that capitation should instead be reviewed to correct the anomalies. Advocating for its endorsement, she added �I think that capitation has its benefits and we should not be too thick on scrapping the program. We need to look to learn from the lesson of the pilot in the Ashanti region and figure out a way to move forward. Mrs. Akua Kwarteng Addo commended the country for taking the bold initiative to become the first country on the continent to implement the health insurance policy. She further called on the nation to look at the benefits that still existed in the health care system to chalk more successes for the country.