The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) is extremely happy with the F. Alpha and Omega Specialist Hospital in Madina in the Greater Accra Region for its management's voluntary registration of more people onto the National Health Scheme (NHIS) for free.

By extension, the NHIS mass membership mobilization exercise covers the renewal of expired membership of existing members, organized on the hospital's premises.

This came to light when the NHIA Deputy Chief Executive for Operations, Louisa Atta-Agyemang (Mrs.) paid a working visit to the hospital on Tuesday, June 25, 2024.

According to the hospital's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Francis Fosu, the facility became operational  three months ago and realized that the majority of residents there were not insured by the NHIS.

This, he said informed management's desire to embark on 'Operation 20,000 registration of more people onto the NHIS for free.

Mr. Francis Fosu further explained that the rapid intervention was in line with the hospital's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), geared towards encouraging people to subscribe to the NHIS.

"When we started operations three months ago, many people in the community lacked NHIS cards and some had not renewed their membership due to a low level of trust in the Scheme.

To address this, the hospital set an ambitious goal to register 20,000 new members for free, with 7,000 members already registered."

He reassured NHIS members of total healthcare services without any challenges, especially illegal charges for services covered by the Scheme, reaffirming the hospital’s commitment to patient care and support.

Mr. Fosu raised concern about the disparity between market prices of medicines and the prices set by the NHIA, which he bemoaned is affecting the hospital's operations.

During the visit, the NHIA Deputy Chief Executive for Operations, Louisa Atta-Agyemang interacted with some NHIS members on admission in various wards and they confided in her that the NHIS covered all their medical bills and expressed their profound gratitude for not paying extra monies.

She commended the hospital's management for their exemplary services, highlighting credentialed healthcare providers' role in enhancing the importance of the NHIS.

She was impressed with the hospital management's free registration of more people onto the NHIS and renewing the expired membership of some beneficiaries of the Scheme.

She underscored the need for other credentialled healthcare providers to adopt similar practices to enhance quality and affordable healthcare accessibility, as well as renew public trust in the NHIS.

She advised credentialed healthcare providers to stop extorting monies (illegal charges) from NHIS members for services covered by the Scheme.

As inaugurated in April 2024, the F. Alpha and Omega Specialist Hospital is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, including a dental clinic with an operation room, an eye clinic, a dialysis centre with 10 machines set to start operations in September, a fully stocked pharmacy, a labour room, and separate wards for male, female, and pediatric patients