Many families without health insurance coverage have been pushed into abject poverty and inhumane treatments such as detention in hospitals over pending bills.
Their inability to pay medical bills has led them to dispose of valuable family assets in a bid to raise funds.
Luckily, the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) ensures that every member is covered from the effects of unpredictable and catastrophic spendings on medical bills.
What is NHIF?
NHIF is a State Corporation which provides accessible and affordable medical insurance cover to all its members and their declared dependents i.e spouse and children.
Besides is it cover a wide spectrum of medical events such as Inpatient & outpatient services, maternal care, reproductive health services, surgical procedures, emergency road evacuation services, renal dialysis, and cancer treatment among much other coverage a single NHIF policy has.
NHIF registers all eligible members from both the formal and informal sector.
For those in the formal sector, it is compulsory to be a member. For those in the informal sector and retirees, membership is open and voluntary.
Voluntary and self-employed contributors can be able to pay for their NHIF contributions through M-Pesa – Kenya's innovative mobile money transfer technology.
This can be done in a very short time and it is much better than going to queue on any NHIF office.
In this article, you will learn how to pay your NHIF contributions easily via M-Pesa, the operative principles of NHIF and how to pay penalties for late payments.
Operative principles of NHIF
The National Hospital Insurance Fund has a visionary aim to be a world class social health insurer.
This is going to be achieved if they follow the path – mission, which is to provide quality, accessible, affordable, sustainable and equitable social health insurance to all stakeholders who are the members through efficient resource use.
Since its enactment, NHIF has been on the forefront of championing and lobbying for support in order to offer quality health services to the people without having to clash the needs of the people and the administration of NHIF.
There are guiding values to which it operates:
1. Honesty – all NHIF staff should be honest in all their endeavours as they execute their duties which should be done in good faith with the interest of the people at heart.
2. Integrity- this is all about upholding due diligence; hardworking trustworthy. Integrity can be divided into two; corporate and individual integrity, how so the two should be practised in all operation of NHIF and advancement of its services.
3. Accountability – the parastatal is accountable to the public for any action they do, any activity they engage in and any form of decision that is made.
4. Professionalism – on the basis of personality integrity; staff members and other stakeholders should be objective, competent, impartial and work ethically for the growth of themselves corporately and individually with no ill intent.
5. Commitment – there should be a dedication to pull together that is inherent and not coerced so that it is productive.
NHIF penalties for late payments
NHIF operates under laid down guidelines, terms and conditions which determines how the fund is run to ensure it does not collapse and the members get the needed relief without much hassle.
The chief eligibility consideration is the NHIF payment history. The more timely and consistent you make the NHIF payments the faster you are.
Inconsistency will render you into problems. However, this state parastatal acknowledges that one can fail to pay the monthly contribution for reasons beyond their control yet they desperately need the fund.
The NHIF penalties for late payment Kenya apply in two varied ways; for those in the formal and informal sectors, treatment is done separately.
If you are in the formal employment and fail to pay timely, then the penalty you attract equals the amount you are supposed to contribute. This implies you will pay double the amount.
If in informal employment, a 50 per cent charge will have been attracted following late payment. If you contribute Ksh. 500 monthly to the NHIF, the late payment means you will pay Kshs. 750.
All monthly contributions should be made on or before the 9th of every month. NHIF payment made after this date is considered late payment and attracts penalties.
How to Pay NHIF Via M-Pesa Paybill
M-Pesa has made life easier by making money transactions from one party to another.
With M-Pesa, you can now easily pay your NHIF contributions from anywhere anytime.
Steps:
1. Go to your M-Pesa Menu
2. Select Paybill option
3. The NHIF Pay Bill number/business number is 200222
4. Enter the business number
5. Enter your contributor‘s National ID Number
6. Enter the amount to contribute
7. Enter your M-Pesa pin number and click send
8. Confirm if you’ve sent the correct details
9. Afterwards, you will get an M-Pesa confirmation Text containing all the details of your NHIF payment
How to Pay NHIF Penalty Via M-Pesa Paybill
Sometimes you can forget to pay your NHIF monthly contribution if you are self-employed, which results in a penalty of Ksh 250.
Here is how you can pay the penalty via Mpesa:
1. Go to M-Pesa and click " Lipa na M-Pesa"
2. Enter 200222 as the NHIF Business number.
3. For account Details, enter your National ID number then add the letter "Y" at the end i.e "32688811y".
4. Enter Ksh 250 for every month you have defaulted.
5. Enter your Mpesa PIN.
6. You will receive a confirmation message for the payment.
Note: This is only applicable to self-employed NHIF members.
How to check NHIF account status online via the web
Here is the step by step procedure:
1. With your internet-enabled device, get to the NHIF official website: www.nhif.or.ke
2. There is a self-service portal for you to sign up to gain access
3. If you are visiting the site for the very first time, you need to first register in order to receive the services.
There are three paramount requirements;
The NHIF card numbers, a valid email address and a day working phone number in case they would like to reach up to you for enquiries or other reasons.
4. This follows several prompts to fill up other personal details which should be dully filled before saving or submitting.
5. Develop a password that you will use every time you log onto the portal, this should be easy to remember yet not so obvious.
However, it can be reset in case you have completely forgotten your password for the NHIF account status online enquiry.
Technically, this is how to create an NHIF self-service individual account.
6. Now, log onto the NHIF self-service portal and proceed on to get your NHIF account status online.
7. For the security of your bio, log out from the device after you are done checking the NHIF account status online Kenya.
How to check NHIF account status online using the mobile phone
The use of mobile phone in checking NHIF account status is highly reliable and very easy to use.
Here is the procedure:
1. Go to the main menu on your mobile phone and select the message icon by touching.
If using an android phone just click on the icon.
2. This opens the message thread for inbox, at the top there is a compose prompt, click on it.
3. At the message space, type ID, a space followed by the ID number or the Passport number if applicable.
For example, ID 123456 sent to the NHIF number which receives and processed details for you.
4. This message should be sent to 21101 which is NHIF recipient.
Information regarding your NHIF account status will be processed and send back to you in a text message.
