Over 600 private hospitals under the Rural and Urban Private Hospitals Association of Kenya (RUPHA) will not offer medical services to patients under the Social Health Authority (SHA) from today.
The private hospitals are have said that they will not avail medical services to patients covered by SHA unless they are admitted with alternative mode of payments. However, the hospitals have issued an exception to patients who were already admitted under the SHA payment program. They will also admit patients requiring emergency medical attention.
The private hospitals have been lamenting over mounting claims that have not been paid. According to Dr. Brian Lishenga who is RUPHA chairperson, the private hospitals have about 11 months of arrears.
The Ministry of Health has started reconciliation of claims. However, said Dr. Lushenga, it is not clear how far this will go with the expected laying off of staff who were working under the old National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) system.
16.1 million Kenyans shun SHIF; contributions not enough to fund healthcare
“We don’t have a concrete plan and we don’t have any structured talks that can lead to some agreements on key issues. We have some claims under SHA that are not disputed and are already at payment stage. We can then have a reconciliation plan on the claims that still need to go through a process,” he told a local media house.
The boycott on the social insurance by private hospitals come barely a week after the Ministry of Health admitted that the majority of Kenyans are not remitting their contributions to the fund.
According to the ministry, 16.1 million Kenyans who have registered under the Social Health Authority are not contributing to the scheme. This means that out of the 19.4 million Kenyans who have registered, only 3.3 million are making contributions.
“Health services are expensive and we cannot only have those in the formal employment category bearing the burden of the rest of the Kenyan population,” said Dr. Patrick Amoth, the Director General of Health.
