The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) is now introducing the use of fingerprints identification for its members across the country alongside their dependants. This, according to NHIF, is part of an effort to battle fraud as well as help in speeding up payment of medical claims.

The government state corporation has now begun rolling out biometric registration as it seeks to phase out the use of NHIF card and national identity card. These two methods have proven to fall victim to loopholes that are taken advantage of for fraudulent claims.

The fingerprint registration system comes concurrently with the installation of an electronic claims system as the scheme looks to get rid of manual processing of hospital bills. Hospitals across the country will now have a July 11th deadline to switch to this claim processing system as the 8.9 million NHIF members are required to register their biometrics to access their cover.

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Speaking to Business Daily, NHIF CEO Peter Kamunyo stated that biometrics belonging to members and their dependents will be enlisted at NHIF service points or contracted hospitals countrywide.

“We want to ensure all NHIF members are biometrically registered. This will improve efficiency in terms of access to healthcare since they will not have to carry their cards. It will also reduce fraud that rides on impersonation,” said Mr Kamunyo.

“All healthcare providers will be submitting their claims electronically after July 11. This is will reduce the turnaround time for payments and cut issues of reconciliation.”

This move from NHIF comes at the same time as most if not all government services have been shifting to operate fully online. This could be seen as a response to the pandemic that has discouraged queues but also as a move to improve efficiency for Kenyans across the country.