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Claim: Comfort Brantuo, a Facebook user, made several posts about NHIS subscribers’ ability to withdraw funds from their cards using a website and a purported OPT code.
Verdict: False! Findings from the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), which runs the National Health Insurance Scheme, reveal that nothing occurs in their operations. They do not deposit any money onto NHIS cards.
Full Text
Comfort Brantuo, a Facebook user, made a post on the social media platform claiming to be able to help people withdraw money from their National Health Insurance Scheme cards. She operates as a regular member of the NHIS CASH WITHDRAWAL group on Facebook.
A text announcement is made on that page that the Government of Ghana and the National Health Insurance Office have paid half of the hospital bills for subscribers. They claimed that the government has placed an amount of GH¢3,500 on each subscriber’s card, and that amount can be withdrawn. The post seems to suggest that they have found a way to beat the system where their website will help any subscriber to withdraw that amount of money (even if the person did not visit the hospital for treatment). An interested party is to pay an amount of GH¢200.00 to be able to access the said website and also get a one-time password (OTP) code for this transaction. The withdrawal, they said, will take less than 15 minutes. Read the said post here with this link
The group, NHIS CASH WITHDRAWALS, has 301 followers and made its most recent post on Jan 9, 2024. One of its posts on Jan 6, 2024, shared a 29-second reel of a woman claiming the withdrawal was accurate with no fraud involved. It also shared some other photos showing various payment transactions as proof of payment.
One other person, Emmanuel Azumah, whose posts this researcher came across first, has the same claim and mode of operation.
Comfort Brantuo is one of many who claim to help people withdraw money from their NHIS cards in Ghana. Our checks on Facebook revealed multiple groups, pages, and individuals holding this claim. We have spotted at least seven entities on this claim. They all use the same method and approach, with most posts dating back to 2023.
Hon. Robert Mensah Sarfo (a fake account holder), Edem Amegashie, Johnson Akorli (who also runs a purported World Remit scam business) and Kwanor Amoah are other names running the same enterprise.
Verification
The researcher’s first step to verify was to study some of the pictures shared on the page. Even though they have the NHIS logo and some branding, it was quickly noticed that they also had Nigeria’s National Health Insurance Scheme logo. This raised suspicions and called for extra investigation. The Ghanaian insurance provider’s logo is A, whereas its Nigerian counterpart is B, as shown in one of the pictures below.
A call was placed to the National Health Insurance Authority headquarters in Accra but was unanswered. The researcher fell on Mr Richard Kporha, the Public Relations Officer of the National Health Insurance Scheme in the South Dayi District of the Volta Region. He said it was a scam, as nothing like that was in their system or operations.
He also added that their attention was drawn to those claims and investigations that are currently ongoing to understand how the claimants operate and gather enough evidence for their arrest and consequent prosecution.
The claimants ask people to pay GH¢200.00 for an unavailable service.
How does the NHIS scheme operate?
For the public, it is essential to state that Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme does not deposit funds onto a subscriber’s card. Through the National Health Insurance Authority, the government pays health facilities only after claims have been verified. The PRO explained how the system works:
- A person registers onto the system as a subscriber.
- He or she is issued a card.
- The subscriber goes to the accredited health facility for treatment for a condition under the scheme’s cover.
- His or her details are taken, checking if he or she is genuinely subscribed to the scheme.
- Once the subscription is verified, treatments and drugs are given if applicable.
- A claim is then made by the facility of the amount and submitted to the government.
- As and when funds are made available to the authority, the various facilities are paid for the verified claims.
In short, no government pre-funding is made available to any subscriber’s NHIS card. Hence, such money is unavailable for withdrawal.
Conclusion
It has been discovered that the claim that anyone can withdraw from their National Health Insurance Scheme cards is not valid and is a way to defraud unsuspecting Ghanaians of their hard-earned GH¢200.00. The claimants are scammers, and the public should be wary of their activities.
This report was produced under the DUBAWA’S Non-Urban Journalists Mentorship project to promote a culture of truth and verification in non-urban newsrooms in Ghana with support from the US Embassy in Ghana.
