He added: “We took this decision to ensure transparency in the process, as some establishments received payments while others did not. Today, a formula has been established for the payment of these debts.”
Additionally, the Kenyan government representative pledged another 3 billion shillings (US$23,252,208.90) for the following week, noting that the country’s health ministry had established a formula to settle debts.
The Kenyan government proceeded with setting up the new health insurer on October 1, despite complaints from faith-based institutions about the debts.
At the October 14 meeting, representatives of Kenya’s faith-based health institutions expressed concerns about the SHA system, citing delays and inconsistencies in registration and requesting payments.
They said these delays contributed to late payments for health services offered under the defunct NHIF programs, which increased the debt of faith-based health institutions.
PS Kimtai admitted that the NHIF had an outstanding debt of KES 30 billion (USD 232,522,089) to health facilities. He assured that all outstanding bills would be settled within 90 days.
Regarding concerns over the deployment of the SHA system, he said engineers were working to correct current inefficiencies in the system.
He pledged to ensure that reimbursement requests from October 1, the date on which the new social health insurance scheme was put in place, were processed as a priority in order to avoid the accumulation of new ones. debts under the new system.
