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Some private health facilities at Akatsi in the Volta region are thinking of refusing to accept holders of National Health Insurance Card following the National Health Insurance Authority�s (NHIA) inability to pay them about six months� arrears. Some of the facilities said they now lack adequate funds to pay the salaries and social securities of their workers because the authority had failed to reimburse them over the period for services rendered to insurance card holders. Speaking in an interview with the DAILY HERITAGE, an official of one of the facilities who spoke on condition of anonymity said they lack funds to pay workers and have also run out of stocks with suppliers refusing to give them drugs and other items because they could not pay for previous supplies. According to the source, after following up to the head office in Accra, he was informed that the central government had used the NHIA levy for other projects and was yet to reimburse the authority for onward payment to the service providers. The source further added that when they complain consistently, the authority tries to victimize them by finding faults in their operations and thus making huge deductions from the unpaid money. �They sometimes come round and ask for documents and when you provide them, they try to find out other data from your computer and when they find a single error, they will deduct huge monies from what they owe you. They once fined us GH�30,000.00 for a data entry error,� the source explained. He indicated that they are planning to lay off some workers for lack of adequate funds so they could pay the salaries and social security of the few they could maintain, adding that they will start refusing the card holders for a cash and carry service to enable them sustain the clinic. He noted that �we all know the economic situation in the country, but if they (NHIA) pay part of what they owe us, we can manage with it until the rest is paid.� But, Communications Manager of NHIA, Selorm Adonoo, in an interview with the paper explained that payment of claims takes time, hence, facilities that submit their claims late may face delay in payment. Mr. Adonoo explained that the authority uses two months to vet claims before making payments to service providers; therefore, there is the need to exercise patience with the authority. According to the Communications Manager, some of the facilities also find ways of making claims for services they did not render to patients, therefore when officials suspect such things, they probe further before making any payment to the facility. He further denied claims that the central government had used the authority�s levy for other projects hence the delay in payment. �Maybe he did not understand what the official told him, that is why he said government had taken the money because the levy goes into the consolidated fund where the Finance Minister with his officials discuss and make disbursement to the various agencies so we cannot say government used our levy for other projects,� he explained.