List of hospitals where your child will get free treatment

Timed to coincide with the opening of schools this week, the list contains accredited public and private healthcare providers that will offer National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) services to the students.

However, principals of the 9,000 secondary schools will have to first select the nearest facilities, easily accessible to students when they fall sick.

“As a matter of urgency, you are requested to identify preferred outpatient facilities from the attached list of accredited healthcare providers. The facilities chosen should be nearer to the school,” says a circular by Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang to the principals.

The circular instructs the school heads to forward the selected health facilities to the NHIF branches through the County Director of Education.

The NHIF guidelines show that outpatient services will be provided on a choice-basis at any accredited facilities.

Students will however access ward bed facilities for inpatient services in any accredited facilities. These will include accredited mission/faith-based healthcare providers and accredited private hospitals, except for high-cost private facilities.

Inpatient care will be on a referral basis from the selected outpatient care facility.

This means when schools open tomorrow, the three million secondary school students will immediately have access to medical facilities for outpatient services under the Sh4 billion schools healthcare plan.

Kipsang yesterday said all the students will access medical services using their personal numbers allocated during the Nemis registration exercise.

He also said no student will be denied access to healthcare before receiving the NHIF card.

“As the cards are being processed and the hospitals will be able to use the Nemis details from our database to treat the children,” said the PS.

The NHIF implementation plan seen by the Sunday Standard reveals that school heads will choose the medical facilities to be accessed by students.

Students who wish to change the facilities will only do so once in a year, after a review of the contract. The contract between NHIF and the Ministry of Education will be renewed annually.

Seamless implementation

The NHIF will administer the Government comprehensive medical scheme. The medical cover programme will cater for all secondary learners at a cost of Sh1,350 per student per year. 

NHIF Chief Executive Officer Geoffrey Mwangi asked parents and teachers to ensure no child is denied access to the comprehensive cover.

“We are pulling all stops to ensure the implementation is seamless and we request all stakeholders to work with us and support the good initiative by the President,” said Mwangi.

Finer details of the health cover show that students’ enhanced package will include outpatient services, inpatient services, dental, optical, daycare services, local road ambulance, and emergency air rescue services.

Cases that will require overseas air evacuation, general and specialised services, overseas management for cases not treated in the country, funeral expense and group life are also part of the package. 

However, only active students will be allowed to access medical cover. School dropouts will be locked out of the scheme.

Kipsang said all children under the Ministry of Education data will get the cover even when their parents are not listed under NHIF.

Additional details show that NHIF shall receive and acknowledge claims arising from notifications within 30 days in case of death.

The Last Expense Cover has been pegged at Sh100,000 and shall be included within the Group Life Cover.

NHIF guidelines say that during school holidays students who will be away from the selected facilities will only be required to produce a letter from the nearby NHIF office.

“Access to services shall not be interrupted by a student transferring to another school or when a facility ceases to offer services. NHIF will put in place mechanisms to ensure continuum of health care services,” reads the guideline.

Mr Mwangi also said students will not be required to co-pay for outpatient services.