Several health insurance providers in the country have indicated that they will not honour future bills from the Nairobi Women's Hospital.
The communication was made in a statement released by the Association of Kenya Insurers and several insurance firms on Tuesday, February 4, following an exposé that painted the hospital as exploiting patients to maximize costs.
The insurance firms indicated that as of February 5, 2020, they would suspend their ties with the hospital pending resolution of the scandal.
The insurers urged members of the public to seek services in alternative hospitals adding that they would not refund cash payments or cover services rendered by the hospital.
This move comes weeks after screenshots of conversations alleged to be from a WhatsApp group of Nairobi Women’s Hospital staffers were exposed online.
These chats indicated that the staff were given daily targets which they were supposed to achieve through the admission of patients, a matter that was reported to be monitored on an hourly and daily basis.
As first reported by Citizen TV on February 3, some of the things that came to light included what people described as collusion with insurance firms to make a killing out of those with medical covers and inflation of the cost of drugs.
Some also lamented about the increased cases of caesarian sections which were twice as expensive and also the demand for constant consultation for conditions that were incurable.
When the claims surfaced, the Nairobi Women's Hospital announced that it would immediately commence investigations on the allegations, doubting that there was any truth behind it.
"We have noted with a lot of concern reports appearing in various media platforms suggesting that there is some systematic approach by the hospital to generate revenue from patients.
“Although we don’t believe this is the case, and in fact, it is antithetical to our foundational principles, we take these allegations very seriously and are conducting an internal review as well as cooperating with the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentist Council as they carry out their independent review,” Citizen TV quoted a statement from the hospital's board.
