NHIA Achieves 2018 Premium Targets

The Northern Regional Director of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mr Issahaque Abdul Latif, has announced that the performance at the regional headquarters has been “impressive as they have achieved a lot in the last year”.

He stated that one of their targets was maximising the premium and processing fees which was achieved.

Mr Abdul Latif said many of the districts attained their targets and others exceeded the benchmark, which, he noted, is an improvement for the Northern Region.

He made this known at the end-of-year review of the NHIA to assess the performance of the authority for the year 2018 at the regional headquarters.

This forms part of the mandate of the NHIA to ascertain whether or not they have been able to achieve their objectives and targets in the year under review.

Mr Latif outlined that one of the primary responsibilities of the scheme is to register indigents who cannot afford healthcare services.

In his opinion, “The authority did well by covering a large proportion of the indigent category”.

He also commended the staff of the authority for their professional conduct.

Mr Latif further revealed that they were able to introduce a mobile membership renewal system, explaining that the major reason for that intervention was to enable clients to have efficient and easy access to their health insurance cards.

He described the e-renewal system as a huge success, adding the turnout of beneficiaries for renewals has reduced drastically.

He said 70 per cent of the clients who previously gathered at the various NHIA offices to renew their cards have opted for the e-renewal system.

Additionally, he hinted that the authority is planning to initiate an electronic receipt programme this year.

A major benefit of this system is the possibility of obstructing fraudsters from extorting money from unsuspecting clients.