Civil servants, including teachers and police, under the Social Health Authority (SHA) insurance scheme, will not receive free medical services from private hospitals.
The Rural & Urban Private Hospitals Association of Kenya (RUPHA) suspended all services for patients covered under SHA, requiring them to pay cash.
RUPHA demanded the full settlement of KSh 10.6 billion owed by SHA to its member health facilities, warning it will not continue to offer services on credit to the government’s health insurance scheme.
The private hospitals association accused Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Aden Duale of referring to its members as thieves and cartels.
The hospitals threatened to disrupt the transfer of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) members into the SHA scheme by December 2025, from the Minet Kenya-led consortium.
TSC and SHA brokered a deal to onboard all the teachers to the social health insurance scheme, following the end of its contract with Minet Kenya in November.
How much does Minet Kenya owe private hospitals?
However, RUPHA argued that the private medical insurer owes its members about KSh 20 billion, which the consortium is yet to pay ahead of the transfer of teachers to SHA.
RUPHA Chairperson Dr Brian Lishenga said that the onboarding of teachers to SHA will not take place until these dues are cleared by Minet, warning that they will stop offering services.
“The migration of teachers’ insurance must not happen before Minet Kenya pays hospitals. Come December, we will not offer services to teachers if hospitals are not paid,” said Lishenga as quoted by Citizen Digital.
The chair added that other civil servants, including the police, will not get medical services until the payments are settled.
How much does SHA owe hospitals
Dr Lisenga noted that RUPHA has extended credit worth KSh 76 billion to the government medical, which is yet to be paid.
In August 2025, SHA only remitted 53% of claims submitted by all hospitals and medical facilities across the country, leaving out claims worth billions of shillings.
Since its launch in October 2024, SHA has received claims from hospitals amounting to KSh 93 billion, which are yet to be settled fully, according to its reports.
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