File image of the SHA offices. PHOTO | COURTESY

Health facilities across the country have until Wednesday to switch to a new digital system or stop serving patients covered by the Social Health Authority (SHA).

At the stroke of midnight on Wednesday, September 30, a major shift in the running of SHA will be activated.

The portal provider under SHA will be shut down, and all facilities contracted by SHA will now have to migrate and work on the certified Health Management Information System (HMIS).

Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale says the new system will help streamline operations and support better provision of services to the public.

“On the first, we are going to shut down the provider portal on SHA, and we are asking all health facilities to transition to a new system called HMIS. Already, all our county governments, from levels 2, 3 and 4, are on HMIS. All private and faith-based facilities: first, if you have not transferred institutions, you cannot serve a patient in Kenya,” Duale said.

Faith-based facilities were given a three-month grace period to complete the move.

The new system is meant to address problems that dogged the manual portal, including delayed reimbursements, weak verification and claims fraud.

HMIS allows real-time patient verification, electronic claims processing and secure provider authentication. The Digital Health Agency, which is leading the push, says it will cut fraud, speed up payments and make the sector more accountable.

“We are digitizing, and Kenya is now one of the best countries in the world in terms of digitization. Our citizens don’t have to carry documents; our whole healthcare system is wireless; the days when you had an NHIF card are not there,” Duale added.

For patients, that means medical records, including scans, can be shared across facilities. That could mean fewer repeat tests and easier referrals.

The government says the move is part of a wider plan for a paperless health system.

“Today, if you do an MRI in Nairobi or Mombasa and next week you are somewhere else, you don’t have to carry it or that CT scan physically. You just need to log in, and your doctor can see it from anywhere,” stated the CS.

The National Treasury has been asked to set aside money in October to pay outstanding NHIF arrears owed to faith-based and private facilities.

With the deadline here, the test now is whether facilities that have not migrated can do so in time and whether patients will notice the difference at the hospital door.