The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) has mounted a crackdown on employers who fail to remit statutory deductions.
NHIF Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Samson Kuhora said the three weeks exercise targets to net Sh. 712 million in remittances.
This, he said, was out of the total Sh. 1.07 billion the national insurer is owed by employers dealing a blow on service delivery.
The exercise, he added, aims at sealing the gaps in revenue collection to ensure that operations of the funds run uninterrupted.
Workers, he said contribute 64 per cent of the national insurer’s revenue adding that measures have been put in place to seal loopholes affecting collections.
Speaking at Tom Mboya Labour College in Kisumu during a consultative meeting with the Central Organisation of Trade Union (COTU) officials, Dr. Kuhora said the move will help clear pending bills and ensure NHIF beneficiaries continue to enjoy services at all the accredited facilities.
NHIF, he added, was saddened by reports of some beneficiaries being denied services due to the pending bills, cautioning accredited service providers against the vice.
This, he said, was a violation of the contractual provisions the insurer has with the facilities assuring them that all the pending bills shall be cleared.
“We have had engagements with them through the Kenya Health Care Federation and briefed them on the status of payments and the challenges affecting the process,” he said.
The delays in clearance of the bills, he added, were occasioned by a dip in the insurer’s revenues.
Employer compliance, he said, remained the biggest challenge affecting revenue collections with medical fraud and gaps in claims processing also dealing a blow to the exercise.
COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli asked the NHIF board to crack the whip on corruption to safeguard employee contributions.
Corruption, he said, remained the biggest challenge in service delivery, calling for an audit of the accredited health facilities to ensure that only those that meet the threshold are allowed to operate.
By Chris Mahandara
