Kenya, Sept. 5 -- The Social Health Authority and the Ministry of Health have been given a 14-day go-slow notice by private hospitals because they say they have outstanding claims of Sh76 billion under the SHA and the now-defunct NHIF.

The Rural and Urban Private Hospitals Association of Kenya (RHUPHA-Kenya) is the group that represents all of the institutions. They said that NHIF owes them Sh33 billion and SHA owes them Sh43 billion.

RHUPHA says that most of NHIF's debts are related to public and mission hospitals, with Sh15.2 billion owed to 83 large institutions.The rest is distributed out across 2,600 smaller hospitals.

The group added that 23 of the 83 are governmental institutions, which it said are responsible for 10% of the NHIF debt.

According to a presidential order on March 5, RHUPHA has given SHA 14 days to pay up its NHIF debts.

It is also asking for at least 50% of the Sh43 billion to be paid under SHA and for a way to clarify things on the SHA site so that genuine claims that were previously denied may be submitted again.

In addition, the group wants a Dispute Resolution Tribunal established up to handle suspensions, downgrades, and enquiries of facilities.

It also wants claims data to be made public in a clear way, including the sums paid, the total filed, the approvals, and the payout rates.

"Kenyan hospitals are still in a lot of financial trouble because the Social Health Authority (SHA) has been slow and not enough in paying them back." The statement said, "In particular, general inpatient and surgical claims have stagnated, with hospitals reporting payout ratios of 10-20 per cent in these categories."

Health CS Aden Duale's decision to reject Sh10.6 billion worth of SHA claims was called a move that was affecting hospitals that obeyed the rules.

RHUPHA also said it was worried about what it called random deletions of bed capacity, downgrades of facilities, and suspensions that weren't done properly, which goes against the Fair Administrative Action Act.

"Hospitals still have to deal with blanket rejections of claims without a way to send in clarifications or supporting documents.""Publish the names of the 24 hospitals you sent to DCI and the money you want back from them," RHUPHA added.

The group also suggested looking into SHA's financial mechanism, noting that the authority is losing between Sh2.7 billion and Sh3.5 billion per month.

SHA gets roughly Sh5.4 billion a month, but it gets claims of Sh8.7 billion.

"As of the end of August 2025, healthcare providers have filed claims for Sh96.2 billion. SHA has only paid Sh53 billion; thus, it still owes Sh43 billion.

The "Register Now" campaign without a "Contribute Today" push has been a mistake in policy. The group claimed, "Hospitals are being flooded with patients, but they don't have enough medicine, staff, or cash flow to run their operations."

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Bana Kenya.