Breaking News: CS Nakhumicha Announces New Hospital Categorisations Under SHIF.
Breaking News: CS Nakhumicha Announces New Hospital Categorisations Under SHIF: Health Cabinet Secretary, Susan Nakhumicha on Wednesday provided new categorizations for hospitals to be registered under the Social Healthcare Act.
The CS was speaking to the National Assembly Health Committee where she disclosed that her Ministry found out that some hospitals were highly categorised under the National Health Insurance Fund.
Under the new categorisation level 1 hospitals will be community facilities run by certified medical clinical officers while level 2 hospitals will be health facilities.
Health centres will be categorised at level 3, category 4 which is the district hospitals, and district referral hospitals qualify to be under level 5 hospital rankings. The highest ranking will be level 6 which are the national referral hospitals.
Further Nakhumicha noted that the categorisation will be undertaken by the Kenyan Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) as the lead agency.
She explained that the council led by secretary general, Davji Atellah, will be tasked with inspecting, categorising and licensing hospitals.
According to Nakhumicha, the exercise will ensure that the health sector is free of fraud associated with health facilities as witnessed under NHIF.
She stated, “We have found that there are hospitals that are categorised as level 4 when they are actually level 2.”
The SHIF is expected to kick on March 1, 2024 with President Ruto expressing that monthly contributions paid to NHIF will drop by Ksh200, from Ksh500 to Ksh300 for most Kenyans with his administration covering the costs for beneficiaries who cannot afford to pay.
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