Former staff of the defunct National Health Insurance Fund have been officially moved to the new Social Health Insurance Authority, the entity mandated to manage the Social Health Insurance Fund, popular as SHIF.
Government spkesperson Isaac Mwaura said on Tuesday the ex-NHIF employees will be with SHA for six months to undergo suitability assessments and interviews for permanent onboarding thereafter.
"Staff not retained will be deployed to other government institutions as per the transitional clauses in the shift to SHA," Mwaura said.
The future of more than 1,700 NHIF staff was left uncertain following the transition of NHIF to SHA on October 1.
Mwaura's statement now serves to assure the staff that their livelihoods are secured.
Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa said on Monday significant progress has been made in the implementation of SHIF, now rebranded to Taifa Care.
Speaking during a meeting with faith-based health stakeholders, the CS said 8,336 healthcare facilities have been contracted to offer services, 5,210 of which are government-owned, 319 are faith-based while 2,807 are private facilities.
As part of formalising the transition, the government on Tuesday released Sh3.7 billion in pending bills owed to various health facilities across the country, including Sh1.4 billion for claims accrued under the defunct NHIF.
During the meeting with the CS, leaders from faith-based facilities gave the government until March next year to clear old debts it owes their hospitals through the defunct NHIF.
The government owes faith-based facilities Sh4 billion for services offered under NHIF and SHA but the government has only paid Sh938 million.
Mwaura said the government is committed to clearing the claims and ensuring timely payments to healthcare facilities.
He said of the Sh3.7 billion, Sh1.1 billion will go to the Linda Mama programme and another Sh1.35 will go towards clearing SHA capitation payments in alignment with President William Ruto's commitment during his State of the Nation address Thursday last week.
"We wish to assure the public, healthcare provders and all stakeholders that SHA will also clear the October 2024 claims under SHA this week and will continue to process NHIF claims," Mwaura said.
