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The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) seems to have taken a nose dive in the Prestea Hunni-Valley District of the Western Region, as card bearers of the scheme continue to be turned away from accessing the facility, even in government hospitals and pharmaceutical shops. Government hospitals in the district have, since January 1, this year, resorted to cash and carry before attending to patients. This follows the inability of the NHIA to settle its indebtedness towards the health providers in the district, including both public and private hospitals, as well as pharmaceutical shops. The NHIA owes health providers in the district from March 2014 to date. Documents available to The Chronicle indicate that the Prestea Bogoso District Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) took the decision to put a stop to NHIS services in hospitals and pharmaceutical shops in the district, following the NHIA�s indebtedness to the health providers. In a letter addressed to health facilities in the district entitled �Withdrawal of NHIS Services in the Prestea Hunni-Valley District,� the District GHS Director, Mrs. Caroline Otoo, wrote: �I kindly write to inform all Ghana Health Service-related facilities to cease giving healthcare to NHIS card bearers with effect from the 1st January 2015. This has become necessary due to the inability of the NHIA to reimburse NHIS claims from March 2014.� The letter was copied to the Medical Superintendent of the Prestea Government Hospital, institutional heads and the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area. It would be recalled that The Chronicle, in October last year, reported of how the NHIS had failed to reimburse claims it owed the Prestea Government Hospital alone, which stood at GH�752,826.33. Clients of the hospitals, according to the paper�s investigations at the time threatened to stop supplying them with drugs amongst other things. The NHIA, in a letter addressed to the management of the Prestea Government Hospital, of which The Chronicle has a copy, is accusing the hospital of irregularities in credentialing its facility, hence the decision to suspend it from rendering NHIS services to card bearers of the scheme. The NHIA quoted Act 852 section 32(1) of the NHIA Act, which demands that all facilities be documented before they could render NHIS services to clients of the NHIA. In a letter signed by Dr. Memuna Tanko, Acting Director of Quality Assurance of the Authority, and addressed to the management of the Prestea Government Hospital, he stated: �We write to inform you that per available records at the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), your facility has not been formally credentialised by the Authority.� The letter entitled �Suspension of Services to NHIS Subscribers�, continued: �We also make reference to a letter dated 25th November 2014, notifying you and giving you up till 9th of December, 2014 to regularise your status with NHIA, which you have responded to. �Our attention is drawn to the fact that an application for credentialising with a payment voucher dated 15th December 2014 was sent to the Director of Claims as evidence for credentialising. �This date exceeds the 9th December 2014. As a result, we regret to inform you that your facility has been suspended from providing healthcare services to NHIS subscribers, effective 1st January 2015, since you failed to regularise your status. �Henceforth, the District Officer of the NHIA has been advised to stop processing claims from your facility, from the above date, until you formally regularise your credentialising status with the Authority,� it stated. The management of the Prestea Hospital has, however, indicated that the decision of the NHIA to suspend the facility has come as a surprise and shock to them. Speaking in a telephone interview with the paper, the Hospital�s Administrator, Mr. Felix Kesse, said the hospital suspected foul play on the part of the NHIA for suspending the hospital from dispensing healthcare to NHIS subscribers. According to him, their suspicion of foul play stems from the fact that the NHIA has paid other facilities in the district it owed in claims up to June, 2014, but same cannot be said of the Prestea Hospital. Mr. Kesse told this reporter that when the management of the Prestea Hospital realised something was going wrong, it lodged a formal complaint with the NHIA, and followed it up with a petition to the Chief Executive Officer of the NHIA amongst others. The Administrator continued that it was then that the NHIA instructed the Central Processing Center (CPC) unit to hurriedly vet the claims of the Prestea Hospital and submit them. For that reason, according to Administrator Kesse, the decision by the NHIA to suspend the facility from rendering NHIS services to subscribers of the scheme was unjustifiable, since it had not paid the debt owed it. Mr. Kesse, however, told this reporter that even before the NHIA had taken the decision to suspend the hospital from NHIS services, the management of the hospital had already taken the decision to put a stop on NHIS services at the hospital. He, however, denied knowledge of any letter purported to be coming from the Prestea GHS Director asking the Prestea Hospital to stop rendering NHIS services to its subscribers.