The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) has been deemed ineffective as of today.
This comes after over 350 rural hospitals began refusing NHIF cards and instead requiring patients to pay in cash.
This comes as a result of the state insurer’s failure to pay out payments to hospitals.
President William Ruto’s administration appears to have failed to make the monies available to the NHIF.
According to the Rural Private Hospitals Association of Kenya (Rupha), the NHIF Board has not paid a single coin to healthcare facilities in the April-June 2023 quarter, preventing them from paying staff.
Rupha, who represents healthcare centers in 43 counties, states that despite multiple guarantees from the NHIF Board that payments would be delivered since April, their accounts remain empty.
“As a result of the board’s failure to honor its financial commitments, the health facilities under the Rupha are left with no other recourse but to issue an immediate notice that beneficiaries of the NHIF Capitated Schemes will be required to make cash payments to access services, effective May 31, 2023,” Rupha chairman Brian Lishenga wrote to NHIF chairman Michael Kamau in a letter.
In April, healthcare centers serving underserved populations in rural and urban areas, like as Kangemi, Kayole in Nairobi, and Kisauni in Mombasa, began charging NHIF clients fixed prices for services delivered, with the insurer covering the balance.
In a recent social media post, the organization informed NHIF cardholders seeking outpatient services that their credit limitations with the hospitals had been depleted and that they would have to pay cash.
“Hospitals have offered them “credit services” for the past 60 days, beginning March 31…”Our nurses, cleaners, and clerks have been working without pay for the past two months,” according to the article.
The NHIF Board is required by the contract with Rupha to pay a capitation of Sh1,000 per beneficiary per annum to the health facility for a beneficiary of the national plan within the first 30 days of the capitated period.
