CS Wafula Reveals How Small Hospitals Swindle NHIF Funds

Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Wafula has maintained that she will do all she can to restore sanity in the health sector. 

Speaking during a high-level meeting on health financing on Tuesday, the health CS exposed how some small hospitals are deceiving the National Health Insurance Fund. Wafula shared that the medical claims from some of these hospitals demonstrate that they perform a higher number of surgeries than the country's referral hospitals.

“As a country, people must be held accountable. We cannot have people raising resources for health and we have others misusing the resources. There is no way that some small facilities somewhere receive the highest claims in this country from NHIF; that this facility does more surgeries than KNH, KUTRRH, MTRH and some of the big FBO facilities we have around. It is not possible, it is theft and we shall call them out for that.” she said. 

The CS called for the Kenya Healthcare Federation CEO Tim Theuri to collaborate in the anti-fraud campaign, warning that she would take action against any private sector entity caught engaging in fraudulent activities. On Monday, Theuri voiced his support for the measures taken by the CS, affirming that they would not defend any provider found guilty. The CS on Monday suspended eight NHIF branch managers in the areas where fraud was alleged and demanded all NHIF staff undertake a lifestyle audit.

The CS declared that the EACC's exercise would see the staff in question explain their source of income that will be expected to be commensurate with their pay. She warned that any discrepancies that arise would be subject to further investigations and will lead to legal action.