Review NHIS for sustainability

Saturday, January 24, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 26)
By Rebecca Kwei
THE Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH) has called on the government to review the operations of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to ensure its sustainability.
It noted that reimbursement to pharmacies and other providers was unduly delayed under the scheme, causing several providers to refuse to attend to patients.
In certain cases, pharmacies refused to supply expensive medicines because they did not want their capital to be locked up, it added.
Speaking to The Mirror, the President of the PSGH, Dr Alex Dodoo, said the society was also unhappy that doctors were allowed to prescribe and also dispense medicines to patients in several facilities under the NHIS.
That, he said, was against best practices and led to abuse and excessive prescribing which could make the scheme go bankrupt.
He said it had been shown in countries such as the US and the UK that if doctors did not have a commercial interest in the medicines being prescribed, patients were conservatively managed with fewer medicines and greater benefits to the scheme.
He called also for a re-examination of the drugs that could be dispensed under the NHIS, since patients were complaining that they had to buy expensive medicines themselves.
Dr Dodoo called for a standardised prescription form with security features to be used under the NHIS to prevent fraud.
He said the PSGH believed that the NHIS was a good health initiative which required constant review to ensure its sustainability.
He said he saw pharmacies playing a leading role as the main dispensers of all medicines under the scheme.
“Pharmacists can also act as ‘gatekeepers’ to the scheme, ensuring that only valid prescriptions are served. Members of the PSGH can also give information and advice to patients on how to manage common ailments, thereby reducing attendance at hospitals and cost to the scheme,” he added.