The government on Tuesday bowed to pressure from faith based institutions and pledged to clear all the dent owed to them after they threatened to scale down on the services that they offer over unpaid medical claims from the defunct National Hospital Insurance Fund(NHIF) amounting to Ksh 7 billion.
The protests to deny the full boarding of the new Social Health Insurance Fund(SHIF) emerged during a meeting convened by Kenya’s faith-based health institutions that include the Christian Health Association of Kenya (CHAK), the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), and the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (SUPKEM).
The Ministry of Health was thus forced to backtrack and act to assure the faith based institutions that their concerns would be addressed to avoid a cripple on the health system as they play an important role in complimenting other health facilities available in the country.
Medical Services Principal Secretary Harry Kimtai revealed that the government will pay Ksh1.5 billion owed to health facilities this week and another Ksh3 billion will be cleared next week bringing the total owed amount to Ksh4.5 billion.
The PS added that the Ministry was optimistic that all the claims would be settled to ensure a smooth transition to the new scheme, the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), and that the digitisation of the process will transform Kenya’s health system.
"We are optimistic that we will settle all claims. This will transform our healthcare system," Kimtai noted.
The Ministry also revealed that it will establish a committee to oversee the payment process to ensure that it achieves the process of clearing the arrears owed to the health institutions.
This happened even as the Ministry admitted that the NHIF liabilities will now be transferred to the new Social Health Authority (SHA). It added that the new scheme is now having a fully digitised claims portal, making it easy for the affected institutions to lodge their claims.
Additionally, the Ministry added that over Ksh100 million worth of claims had been recorded by Tuesday as it looks forward to settling all the claims in 90 days.
‘’NHIF liabilities now fall under the Social Health Authority (SHA), which has implemented a fully digitised claims portal. As of yesterday, over Ksh100 million worth of claims had been recorded, with the system enabling real-time monitoring,’’ the Ministry stated.
Kimtai further urged health facilities to establish customer service desks to help Kenyans in registering for the new health insurance scheme while noting that the government had equally adopted the e-contracting services for healthcare facilities.
E-contracting services above typically refer to the process of creating, negotiating, and managing contracts electronically, using digital platforms. The government added that the system will replace the old manual system that it had previously been using.
As the new healthcare system takes shape, many Kenyans still reported having problems registering for the system possibly due to website traffic on the AfyaYangu portal.
Malala Dealt Blow in Court News Just In
