Abstract
IntroductionIn an effort to increase Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) enrollment and retention rates, the NHIS introduced membership renewal and premium payment by mobile phone. The success of such an innovation dependents on many factors including personal and community characteristics of members.ObjectiveThe objective of the study is to investigate the determinants of renewing membership and paying the NHIS premium through a mobile phone.MethodologyThe prospective cross-sectional survey was used to solicit the required information from about 1192 respondents living in Kumasi Metropolis, Atwima Nwabiaya and Sekyere Central Districts of Ghana. Logistic regression model was employed to estimate the determinants of paying the NHIS premium with the mobile phone.ResultsThe study found that factors including residing in an urban area (Kumasi metropolis), senior high education, tertiary education and informal employees are the determinants of paying the NHIS premium with the mobile phone.ConclusionIt is recommended that the NHIS consider making the mobile payment as simple as possible for the less educated and the rural members to access it.
Highlights
In an effort to increase Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) enrollment and retention rates, the NHIS introduced membership renewal and premium payment by mobile phone
It is recommended that the NHIS consider making the mobile payment as simple as possible for the less educated and the rural members to access it
The study has shown that there is a high patronage of the option for membership renewal by mobile phone, but the patronage varies depending on the characteristics of the individual
Summary
In an effort to increase Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) enrollment and retention rates, the NHIS introduced membership renewal and premium payment by mobile phone. The success of such an innovation dependents on many factors including personal and community characteristics of members. In December 2018, the Ghanaian National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) introduced an innovative method of membership renewal and premium payment through the mobile phone. The new system uses the mobile money banking system to allow members to renew their membership on any of the mobile money platforms [1] This initiative is part of the effort of the NHIS to totally digitize enrollment and renewal [1].
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