Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha has revealed that small hospitals conspire to defraud the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
Speaking during a national health finance dialogue, the CS questioned how the small facilities were performing more surgeries than the county’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.” she said.
“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.”
Nakhumicha further in collaboration with the Kenya Healthcare Federation CEO Tim Theuri, swore to go after every health facility involved with fraud.
Also Read: KMA Disapproves Fraudulent Practices Through NHIF, Calls for Self-Regulation in the Health Sector
The CS on Monday suspended eight NHIF branch managers in regions hit by fraud allegations.
She further announced that all staff at the fund will have to undergo a lifestyle audit.
The CS said the exercise that will be conducted by EACC will require the staff to explain their sources of wealth that will be expected to be commensurate with their pay.
These measures come a few days after Nation media aired and published an expose of how health facilities preyed on elderly to mint millions.
The piece published in the Daily Nation newspaper stated that “fraudsters disguised as healthcare providers preached false hope to villagers, promising to rescue them from the depths of arthritis complications.
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