Patients who seek treatment at private hospitals will not get NHIF outpatient covers for chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes and hypertension.
The enhanced medical scheme will see the NHIF contributors only get basic care for ailments like malaria, pneumonia and typhoid.
The Kenya Association of Private Hospitals (KAPH) said that they had accepted the NHIF’s Sh1,200 offer as annual capitation per patient, but would only provide minor care to patients on the cover.
The medical scheme being pushed for by the governmnet, through the Ministry of Health, came into effect on July 1st this year, but some private hospitals had not accepted it.
Read: Private Hospitals Reject NHIF Cover, Demand Raise in Charges
The hospitals argued that the Sh1,200 was not enough to cover payment for treatmnet of serious diseases such as cancer.
The Business Daily reports that the decision by KAPH - which is made up of several private hospitals - to accept the medical scheme came after a meeting with NHIF and Ministry of Health on August 18.
The association says it will also not offer dental care and diagnostic services such as CT scans because the amount could not cover it.
Some top private hospitals like Nairobi Hospital, Aga-Khan, Mater, Kijabe, MP Shah, Gertrude’s and Metropolitan, which are members of The Kenya Associations of Hospitals (KAH), have however maintained that they will not accept the new medical scheme.
This will come as a blow to many Kenyans who were banking on the promise made by the government in April, of better health care in both public and private hospitals.
While justifying the increase of NHIF monthly deductions, the governmnet had assured Kenyans that all diseases would be covered by the medical scheme in both public and private hospitals.
This development is likely to cause overcrowding in public hospitals by patients with chronic diseases.
This in turn will strain the already struggling public hospitals which lack enough resources to treat chronic diseses.
Read Also: Man Chains Himself To A Tree To Raise Funds For Purchase of Radiotherapy Machine
