The government will refund all Kenyans who have spent out-of-pocket for healthcare services since the migration from the defunct National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) kicked off.

This comes as all healthcare providers, private and faith-based validated the shift from NHIF to the Social Health Authority (SHA), with all the services expected to be up and running from this afternoon.

“All patients who have paid out of their pockets can reach out to us, and we will reimburse them,” Dr Abdi Mohammed, the chairman SHA said yesterday afternoon. Dr Abdi was responding to queries on patients who have agonisingly dug deeper into their pockets to pay for medical services received during the period from October 1 when the government ended NHIF reign.

The chairman revealed that he dispatched his officers from SHA immediately they received the complaints who were able to trace the patients. This follows what he termed as technical challenges the system has encountered. Ibrahim Alio, Director of Corporate Services at SHA, acknowledged that technical issues were encountered during the SHA rollout.

He also confirmed that one of the patients who made headlines for being denied SHA services will be compensated, and the government will cover the cost of his treatment. Made headlines Alio was referring to an elderly patient who made headlines in Nakuru, James Ngaruiya Kanyore who was in distress trying to access chemotherapy treatment.

He is reported to have been unable to access the SHA service at the Sublime Hospital in Nakueu during the SHA rollout.

“We are assuring him that in the next session, he will not have the same problem,” he said. Following the incident, Alio and his team approached him and found a way to help him. “We have also agreed that we are going to refund him the Sh9,500 he used in the medical facility, “ Alio added.

Abdi said SHA services will be operational in the next 24 hours. “The SHA portal would be operational within the next 24 hours after the majority of Kenyans failed to access it when SHA was rolled out,” he said.

New Portal Challenges experienced with the portal were mainly issues such as member identification with the new portal, pre-authorization for services, and submission of claims for services provided. According to the SHA Chairman, 12,704,548 Kenyans registered with the authority as of Sunday, October 6, and a total of 1,442 contracted health facilities have already signed their contracts to offer SHA services to registered members.

Medical Services Principal Secretary, Harry Kimtai also acknowledged that the rollout experienced a lot of problems and promised that the government would sort out the issue.

Additionally, he said that he has formed a committee to address the pending bills that the government owes to the healthcare service providers.

“The problem that was there was communication between us and the health providers, but now we have reconciled our systems, and are now able to speak to each other,” he said.

He said all county health facilities have been on boarded to the system, and supported to digitise. “The government ICT and private health providers have been consolidated,” he said, also stating that all pending bills will be settled.

Kimtai assured the country that the government is committed to meet its obligations by providing services to Kenyans, uninterrupted. Rural Private Hospitals Association, Kenya Private Healthcare Association, and Kenya Catholic Bishops among other facilities validated the government reassurance and said they give it a benefit of doubt