CS Duale: No more diversion of hospital funds as SHA sends money to facilities directly

The Social Health Authority has shielded funds meant for health facilities from misuse and diversion by the county governments, Health CS Aden Duale has said.

The CS told Parliament that the funds are channelled based on the number of patients attended to, and are meant to procure health commodities and sustain the facilities.

“We are paying the health facilities every 14th of the month directly,” Duale said. Under the defunct National Health Insurance Fund, the cash was channelled to the county treasury through the County Revenue Fund.

“What used to happen before under NHIF is that money would be paid to County Revenue first, before they sent it to the health facilities. Under this system, money is sent directly to the facilities,” Duale said.

Some counties diverted the cash to other uses, such as payment of salaries, starving the facilities of the much-needed funds. This condemned the facilities to a perennial lack of drugs and other essential supplies.

Using the direct system of payment would ensure that health facilities get their funds in time, the CS said, to enable them to provide adequate drugs and other health commodities.

Appearing before the National Assembly Delegated Legislation Committee chaired by Ainabkoi MP Samuel Chepkonga, Duale disclosed that the number of Kenyans who have registered with SHA is hitting 22 million.

“We will be moving around the country to rally Kenyans to enrol with the Social Health Authority since there is a lot of negative information out there, but eventually this will turn out to be one of the best decisions made by the Kenya Kwanza administration.”

While assuring the lawmakers that SHA is working, the CS said the digital health system would enhance access for registered patients, who will receive medical care from Level II to Level IV in any health facility.

“Kenyans will not carry any file or a card to be treated. Once you are registered, you will walk into any health facility, whether it is a public hospital, private, or faith-based and get treated,” Duale said.

Duale said the Ministry is compiling data on the most vulnerable individuals, to be handed over to the Social Protection Programme and the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) for support on the SHA payment.

Further, Kenya Medical Supplies Authority will receive its payment for drugs from SHA directly to reduce the backlog of funds that facilities run by the national and county governments are owed.

Duale was appearing before the committee to discuss the proposed regulations for the Digital Health Act and to defend the Digital Health Information Regulation.

The regulations aim to establish an integrated digital healthcare system while ensuring robust data protection. The Data exchange and Health information management procedures regulations will provide a framework for digital health services and the development of a comprehensive, integrated digital health information system.

Duale told the lawmakers that the Digital Health law would enhance healthcare delivery by leveraging advanced technology, supporting the rollout of the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) and cracking down on unqualified practitioners.

He reaffirmed his commitment to serving Kenyans in line with the government’s transformative agenda and urged Ministry staff to uphold the same dedication.

According to the Digital Health (Data Exchange) regulations, the ICT environment of the system shall include an Enterprise Service Bus, which shall route messages between certified digital health solutions, monitor and control the routing of exchange of messages between certified digital health solutions.

In addition, the Information and Communication Technology system will resolve conflicts between communicating service components, control the onboarding and versioning of certified digital health solutions and provide common services including event handling, data transformation and mapping, message and event queuing and sequencing, security or exception handling and protocol conversion.

“The Agency shall maintain an inventory of health data controllers of the certified digital health solutions onboarded onto the enterprise service bus under regulation 7,” reads part of the regulations.

According to the Digital Health (Health Information Management) regulations, the Kenya Health Data Governance Framework shall be the reference document for the management of health data and shall govern the collection, access, sharing and use of health data.