Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr Aboagye Dacoasta, has announced that his outfit has concluded a policy agreement to help ease the financial burden on end-stage kidney patients.
According to him, the decision is currently awaiting approval from the board of the NHIA, which will see the scheme absorb part of the kidney treatment costs.
Speaking to JoyNews on May 14, he said “I think we have made progress on dialysis, so just last week a committee that has been set up to chair and implement the disbursement of the funds that were approved by Parliament has actually concluded their report including the dialysis patients themselves.
“So, we work with themselves, they have concluded there and I can confidently say that within the next few weeks we will be starting the disbursement to the various facilities,” he said.
He explained that following the increase in dialysis cost from GH¢380 to GH¢491, the new scheme will supplement the cost of treatment for the needy.
Dr Dacoasta explained that kidney patients at Korle Bu have been benefiting from philanthropists who cover about GH¢380 of their bill. Consequently, the new scheme would likely cover the remaining cost.
“We are looking at supplementing for both patients from Korle Bu, Komfo Anokye Teaching hospital in Central in such a way that for Korle Bu because they do get that support, we will be able to breach a gap for them and we support our patients also from Cape Coast and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital
“The fact is they[kidney patients] do eight cycles per month, we cannot do all the eight so we are looking at an average or may be below average…Like I said the report is ready, it is just to be taken to the board for final consideration then implementation starts,” he added.
Speaking on JoyNews’ the Pulse on May 14, President of the Renal Patients Association of Ghana, Kojo Baffour Ahenkorah lauded Dr Dacoasta for the initiative.
Touching on the cost covered by the philanthropist, he said that since the hospital reopened after its temporary closure, each renal patient paid the full cost for dialysis. Therefore, he was unclear about what the NHIA boss meant when he said that the cost was covered.