Kenyans are at risk of being denied access to healthcare should the government fail to pay debts owed to hospital facilities under the Rural and Urban Private Hospitals Association of Kenya (RUPHA) within the next two weeks. This after the lobby group issued a 14-day go-slow notice, threatening to stop providing services to patients, citing delay in payment of claims that they say has put the facilities in "severe financial distress." According to Rupha, the Social Health Authority (SHA) and the defunct National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) cumulatively owe Sh76 billion to the hospitals.
Speaking on Friday during a press briefing at the association's offices in Nairobi, Rupha chairperson Dr.
Benard Lishenga demanded immediate settlement of NHIF liabilities in line with the Presidential Directive of March 5, 2025. "Hospitals are in crisis, he decried, noting that SHA alone is yet to pay Sh43 billion owed to their members. "Patients are having difficulties in many hospitals; unless something happens, we are staring at a lot of hospitals shutting down, and patients will struggle to get healthcare." .Keep ReadingPS: Private hospitals risk shutdown for denying SHA servicesUproar after SHA flags hospital payment list as fakeGovernment eyes student enrollment to boost SHA uptakeKMPDU urges President Ruto to scrap SHA, revamp NHIFHe added: "50 per cent of all claims from lower-level facilities (Levels 2-4) remain unpaid.
In particular, general inpatient and surgical claims have stagnated, with hospitals reporting 10 to 20 payout ratios in these categories." The debts owed to hospitals through the SHA have recently been a matter of public debate, with the Auditor General's report of fraud on the entity fuelling outrage.
