The Private Health Facilities Association of Ghana has expressed concern over non-payment of debt owed it by private Health Insurance companies in the country.
According to the Association, the indebtedness of the private health insurance companies is beginning to cripple their operations.
“At the time of coming to the press, we had an average value of One Hundred and Fifty-Two Million, Three Hundred and Seventy-Eight Thousand, Five Hundred Ghana Cedis. (GHC152,378,500.00) as the outstanding liability. This figure does not represent the entire debt owed service providers but just a fraction of the total debt outstanding,” they wrote in a press release dated January 24 and jointly signed by Frank -Torblu, General Secretary and Richard Samuel Boakye Donkor, Vice President.
The Private Health Facilities Association said, “What is even more depressing is the evasiveness of some insurance companies by informing their clients (corporate organizations/individuals) to desist from accessing healthcare from certain facilities since they are no longer in good standing to provide the needed care.”
They lamented that, “We have at some point witnessed the Collapse of certain private health Insurance companies … which has created a huge bad debt in the books of our members. The fear that, the behaviour of some Private Health Insurance Schemes may end up folding up with millions of cedis belonging to service providers cannot be over looked.”
They warned that if by February 14, the insurance companies do not pay, they will adopt a radical approach to recovering the debt owed them.
“We hereby wish to state unreservedly that the insurance companies that have not met their claims payment obligations to service providers should do so within three weeks from now commencing 24th January, 2024 to 14th February, 2024. Within the three weeks, clients of these insurance companies are advised to carry money to pay for their services. Failure by these companies to honour their obligations as expected will attract a rather radical approach to remedy the situation,” they warned.
