The government has released KES9 billion to the Social Health Authority (SHA) as part of the dues owed to healthcare facilities by the defunct National Health Insurance Fund.

Speaking in Nakuru during the inauguration of the Rift Region Multi-Sectoral Committee on Monday, Ministry of Health PS Harry Kimtai said that the funds will be reflected in hospitals' bank accounts this week.

The amount includes an additional KES1 billion that will be channeled towards the Linda Mama Program, as the government continues to offer free healthcare services to expectant mothers.

Linda Mama program was launched by former President Uhuru Kenyatta to alleviate the financial burden on pregnant women.

Additionally, PS Kimtai noted that lenders Equity, KCB, Co-op, Absa, DTB and the Sidian Bank are the financial institutions designated as collection accounts for employers settling the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) monthly premiums for their workers.

Speaking at an interview on Monday, SHA chairperson, Dr. Abdi Mohamed explained that the six banks have been chosen as per the employers’ choice, citing familiarity as they are already using them for other services.

However, this revelation was contradictory to President William Ruto’s directive in August 2022 where he said all remittances under the new health insurance plan were to be made through a central point, via a unified government paybill.

The President called on ministries to close all non-designated payment platforms and to migrate to the newly assigned paybill number, 222222, to streamline payments.

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The move ruffled concerned citizens given that the Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu revealed that the State has little control over the e-Citizen self-service and payment portal.

Ms. Gathungu warned that this could compromise accountability of the billions of shillings processed through the platform.

“The government's single pay bill and even e-Citizen are still marred by a number of challenges which we did not want to derail us," noted, Dr. Abdi while explaining why premiums are not being channeled through e-Citizen.

“We also have our pay bill number for individuals who wish to pay via M-Pesa by following these steps to help flatten the curve. Generate the eSlip number, and use M-Pesa pay bill 200222 to pay,” he added.

Starting with the October 2024 payroll, employers are expected to deduct 2.75 percent from each employee's gross salary and remit it to SHA as their SHIF contribution.

SHA is split into three categories; Primary Healthcare Fund, the Emergency, Chronic, and Critical Illnesses Fund, and the Social Health Insurance Fund and was officially rolled out at the start of October, 2024.

However, it has been a matter of national discourse and great criticism as the transition from NHIF to SHIF left many Kenyans in anguish and fury as they found themselves unable to access medical care over technicalities.

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