COTU Reveals SHA's Biggest Blunder

File image of Francis Atwoli, the Secretary General of COTU.

Francis Atwoli, the Secretary General of COTU, has expressed concerns about the functioning of the Social Health Authority (SHA),

He went on to insist that it should be given complete control over its IT systems.

In a press statement issued on Tuesday, August 26th, Atwoli disclosed that for more than a month, COTU has been unsuccessfully attempting to arrange a meeting with Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale to discuss the significant challenges confronting SHA.

‘’For the last one month the Central Organization of Trade Unions has been seeking an urgent meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of health Hon.Aden Duale EGH, with the aim of addressing challenges facing the Social Health Authority[ SHA] but unfortunately our efforts have not been successful.’’

He contended that despite being created through an independent Act of Parliament, SHA does not have control over its IT infrastructure, which hinders its capacity to efficiently handle hospital payments and validate claims.

File image of SHA Headquaters.

‘’The core challenge facing SHA is that its operations are entirely dependent on an IT platform that remains under the full control of the Digital health Authority and the Ministry of health instead of being independently managed by SHA itself.

Notably, SHA was created by an independent Act of Parliament, making it not subordinate to either the DHA or the MOH.

The statement asserted that SHA is simply functioning as a "conveyor belt" to manage issues passed down from the now-defunct NHIF, lacking the power to resolve them.

Dr. Atwoli, the workers' representative on the SHA Board, voiced his frustration that even though SHA has its own board, DHA and the MoH still largely control its operations.

He cautioned that this confusion might lead to mismanagement of workers' contributions and attributed delays and errors in hospital payments to the existing structure.

‘’Indeed as a board member of representing workers on the Board of the SHA, I am painfully unable to explain to workers what is happening at the SHA considering that SHA is being used as a conveyor belt to process payments while it does not control the IT system aimed at addressing the very problems created by the defunct NHIF.

What is even more troubling is that, despite SHA having its own independent board that should function according to its founding legislation, an undefined entity, DHA, along with the Ministry of Health, continues to make SHA subordinate to them.

Atwoli stated that SHA's dependence on an IT system managed by the DHA and MOH for processing and paying hospitals has resulted in significant loopholes, as SHA lacks the authority to authenticate and verify hospital claims or decide who should or should not be paid.

He mentioned that consequently, SHA is still held responsible for all the misguidances of both DHA and MOH.

The union additionally warned that it might reevaluate its involvement with the SHA Board if its concerns remain unaddressed, and it called for an urgent meeting at the Tom Mboya Labour College to discuss the union's ongoing participation with the SHA Board.

Nonetheless, Deputy President Kithure Kindiki commended SHA systems in comparison to NHIF.

"SHA, unlike the defunct NHIF, is effectively detecting fraud. While NHIF fell on fraud, SHA will rise on its ability to detect and prevent fraudulent claims."