The digital transformation introduced by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) membership has made it easier for citizens to access and enroll for health insurance, leading to increased participation and a healthier population.

This was revealed during a mid-year review meeting of the Eastern Regional office of the NHIA, which was organized to take stock of what the health insurance body had achieved in the previous six months.

The meeting drew National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Managers, Public Relation Officers and Management Information System Officers from the NHIA’s 20 district offices in the region to Koforidua.

Some issues discussed at the meeting were the active membership performance, indigent registration, mobile renewal, revenue mobilisation, challenges, and the way forward for the remaining six months.

Mr. Harry Thompson Baffour, Acting Eastern Regional Operations Manager of the NHIA, said that this year the region was given a membership target of 2,128,098.

However, as at the end of the half year 2024, the region achieved 1,750,900, 82 per cent of the target, with a deficit of 377,198 representing 18 per cent.

He said the region had done 11 percent higher than 2023 half-year and the achievement was made possible with the intervention of digitalization.

"For instance, mobile renewal played a major role in getting these numbers. So as a region, we have decided to intensify education on the use of mobile renewal and MyNHISapp to ease the stress clients go through in renewing their cards and the new registrations,” he said. “This has considerably reduced cost and ensured efficiency in our operations” he added.

He implored the staff to share information about the NHIA's initiatives coming on board.

These include collaboration with the National Identification Authority to bring on board children under 15 years of age to attain their Ghana cards.

Also, the NHIA would help dialysis patients as well as free automatic renewal for the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributors.

Mr. Baffour outlined some challenges of the region and district offices such as the inadequate staffing in most districts, lack of vehicles and malfunctional vehicles.

In a presentation by Mr. Solomon Duah, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at the Eastern Regional Office of the National Health Insurance Authority, compared indigent registration from January-June 2023/2024 and that of the mobile renewal by districts from the same period.

From January-June 2023, the indigent registration was 41,458 while January-June 2024 recorded 94,444.

The mobile renewal by districts from January-June 2023, was 412,805 and January-June 2024 recorded 441,183.