About
Dr. Philip A. Bannor, MD, is appointed by the President as the new acting Registrar of the Health Facilities Regulatory Agency (HeFRA). Dr. Bannor is an Internal Medicine Specialist. (An Internal Medicine Specialist is a Medical Doctor who specializes in the disease management of the adult population aged over 18 yrs; as opposed to a pediatrician who cares for children/adolescents under 18).
Dr. Bannor has been practicing Internal medicine since 2001. He is a graduate of the Medical College of Wisconsin in 1997; and received specialist training in adult care from the Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, Milwaukee, WI and The General Hospital, Nashville TN.
Dr. Bannor became board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, ABIM, in 2002. He holds an active medical license in the United States since 2001, and from the Ghana Medical and Dental Council. He is a member in good standing with the Ghana Medical Association, Tennessee Medical Association, and the American Medical Association.
Dr. Bannor, until his appointment to HeFRA, was the Regional Director of the National Health Insurance Authority-Eastern, overseeing the entire operation of the NHIA with 2 million insured lives in the region. He was transferred to Head eClaims (electronic claims) processing at the NHIA head office in Accra. The eClaims Unit is in charge of processing claims for the teaching, tertiary and regional hospitals, medical centers, and diagnostic/laboratories centers. The Unit receives and processes over 6 million claims, and settles over Ghc 240 million ($US 40 million) liabilities annually.
Under Dr. Bannor’s tenure at the NHIA, he transformed the eClaims Unit from processing 5000 claims per day to 50,000 claims per day. Additionally, Dr. Bannor was appointed by the Chief Executive Officer of NHIA to chair the Stale Claims Review Committee, (SCRC). The committee was responsible for receiving all complaints pertaining to claims submissions, processing, and payments; and to make recommendations and sanctions.
Dr. Bannor represented NHIA/Claims on an interdisciplinary committee involving the World Bank, Ghana Health Service and Ministry of Health/Government of Ghana to streamline NHIA payments to the primary health care providers to achieve the President’s SDG initiative of free Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The interdisciplinary effort distributed free enhanced claims processing software, CLAIM-IT 2.0 /CASP to all private and public facilities including CHAG and other faith-based institutions.
Dr. Bannor’s experience will serve him well in the new role as acting Registrar of the Health Facilities Regulatory Agency (HeFRA).