Activities at the Atua Government Hospital in the Eastern Region are grinding to a halt due to serious financial challenges facing the facility. The inability of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to pay for services rendered by the hospital since April 2009 is impacting negatively on its operations. An amount of GH¢473,366.72 owed it by five district mutual health insurance schemes (DMHIS) in its catchment area are yet to be honoured by the NHIA. The Medical Superintendent in charge of the hospital, Dr Alexander Osei-Bonsu, who disclosed this to the Daily Graphic at Odumase-Krobo, said he had written to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NHIA about the plight of the facility about two weeks ago but he had not received any response from him. He said the Manya Krobo DMHIS owed the hospital GH¢250,937.68 by the end of December, 2009 while Yilo Krobo owed it GH¢193,037.5l with Asuogyaman, Dangme West and Fanteakwa schemes being indebted to the facility to the tune of GH¢11 ,221.34; GH¢7,686.27 and GH¢10,493.92, respectively. According to Dr Osei-Bonsu, much as the hospital served the insured patients on credit, it paid cash for all drugs, equipment and fuel for its services. He noted with concern that since more than 90 per cent of its clients were insured and the insurance schemes were not honouring their financial obligations to the hospital, it found it very difficult to render better services as the facility was run with purely internally generated funds. The medical superintendent stressed that currently, all the hospital's vehicles, including its only ambulance, were grounded for lack of funds to repair them. He said the hospital struggled to get a loan to pay some of its 33 casual workers for December, 2009 while those yet to be paid were still pestering the hospital authorities for their pay. Dr Osei-Bonsu was worried that the hospital that served as a referral facility for Akuse Asesewa Government hospitals, as well as the St Martin's Catholic Hospital at Agormanya, should be unfairly treated while some health facilities in the region had been reimbursed up to October, 2009. "If the current financial problem persists, the hospital authorities will have no alternative but to close down the facility as soon as possible," he emphasised. When contacted, the Deputy Director in charge of Corporate Affairs and Strategic Direction of the NHIA, Mr Eric Ametor-Quarmyme, confirmed that the five schemes were indebted to the Atua Government Hospital. He said considering the plight of the hospital, which is a referral facility, and the various services it rendered to' the people, various sums• of money were being released to the affected schemes immediately to enable them to settle their indebtedness to the facility. According to him, the Yilo Krobo and Manya Krobo DMHISS had been given a reinsurance of GH¢237,410 and GH¢343,089.05 respectively while GH¢276,898.89; GH¢362,843.80 and GH¢339,992.85 had been released to Asuogyaman, Fanteakwa and Dangme West schemes as subsidies, respectively. Mr Ametor-Quarmyme expressed the hope that the five schemes would receive their claims immediately after the New Year holidays to enable them to settle their indebtedness with the Atua Government Hospital to make it continue its operations. He attributed the delay in the payment of claims to the late submission of claims by the health providers, adding that most of the time, they submitted the claims three or four months late. Mr Ametor-Quarmyme added that another reason for the delay in payment of claims was the emerging fraud in the system, which threatened the collapse of the scheme. He, however, stated that realistic measures were being taken to seal the leakage in the system. Source: Daily Graphic