MTRH and NHIF Recognize One Year Since UHC Pilot Launch
Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) hosted the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) Chief Executive Officer Dr. Peter Kamunyo to mark one year since the launch of the Busia Universal Health Coverage (UHC) pilot.
Professor Joe Mamlin, NHIF CEO Dr. Peter Kamunyo, MTRH CEO Dr. Wilson Aruasa and AMPATH Executive Director of Care Professor Sylvester Kimaiyo marked one year since the launch of the UHC pilot in Busia County.
The pilot is a collaborative partnership between MTRH/AMPATH, NHIF and Busia County Government. It aims to demonstrate a UHC model using a three-pronged approach with economic empowerment, health systems strengthening and healthcare financing reforms with the expansion of health insurance coverage using NHIF.
Speaking during the meeting, MTRH CEO, Dr. Wilson K. Aruasa, MBS, EBS reiterated the importance of implementing the proposed model because of its holistic approach and the need for multi-sectorial collaboration to address the social determinants of health.
"The role of government agencies in the pilot provides an unique opportunity to scale up the model countrywide," said Dr. Aruasa.
Dr. Kamunyo applauded the efforts of the team and the Busia Health Widget. He added that the model spoke to the key issues being addressed by ongoing NHIF reforms.
"The reforms provide a legal framework to achieve UHC in the country. The reforms include, among others, the adoption of the digital systems, mandatory enrolment of all adults into the UHC supa cover as well as the identification and enrolment of indigent households into the scheme" he said.
He noted that while public facilities were beginning to tap more into the potential of NHIF capitation and reimbursement to finance the service delivery, there was still a huge untapped potential that remains.
Also in the meeting was Professor Joe Mamlin, one of the founders of AMPATH, who lauded the partnership and expressed confidence in the model. He challenged the team to remain adaptive to the ever-changing policy environment.
Professor Sylvester Kimaiyo, AMPATH executive director of care, echoed his sentiments adding that the UHC model was a culmination of over two decades of providing care in western Kenya and remained confident that the lessons from the model would be applicable in similar settings globally.
The model proposes that the county governments play a central role in the contribution of NHIF premiums for its citizens.
Households would also be expected to contribute in the pilot in order to mobilize sufficient resources for the roll out of the pilot.
In the pilot, 2,050 families were enrolled into NHIF with premiums fully paid for a year. These households also benefited from economic empowerment interventions.
Training of Human Resources for Health (HRH) on quality improvement is one of the key priorities in the pilot in order to build capacity and improve health services delivery at the health facilities.
During the first year of the pilot, facility health funds increased significantly owing to NHIF primary care capitation resulting from increased enrolment of households and their beneficiaries.
The two CEOs discussed matters of mutual interest for the two institutions including patient electronic records, e-claims processing and also visited the upcoming four-floor MTRH Financial Services Centre of Excellence whose ground floor will be a fully-fledged NHIF, MTRH Branch.
Present at the meeting was a representative from Busia County, Dr. David Mukhabi, the county UHC director and the AMPATH population health team led by Dr. Jeremiah Laktabai, Beryl Maritim, Benjamin Andama, Charity Wambui, Caitrin Kelly, William Omoro, Michael Kibiwot and Milka Cheptinga. Present from MTRH were Thomas Ng’etich, Daniel Rotich and Stanley Kulei. Accompanying the NHIF CEO, was Grace Kimani and Robert Otom from the national and regional office.
