NHIF members can now get ambulance services
NHIF CEO Geoffrey Mwangi in Timau, Meru on September 30, 2016. PHOTO | PHOEBE OKALL | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Services include on-site evacuation and emergency care in an ambulance as patients are taken to the nearest accredited health facility.
- They are offered for 24 hours every day.
National Hospital Insurance Fund members can now access emergency ambulance services following a partnership between the insurer and the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS).
The contract with Eplus (KRCS) will enable NHIF members and their declared dependants enjoy new round-the-clock services that will include on-site evacuation and emergency care in the ambulance as they are ferried to the nearest NHIF-accredited health facility.
These 24-hour, seven-days-a-week services, according to an internal memo dated June 5 from the chief executive officer to staff at the NHIF, were available from May 1.
To access the service, NHIF members are required to call 1199, which is a toll-free number, or 0700395395.
The memo says: “The caller should state the principal member’s full name, NHIF number, location/facility, nature of emergency, telephone number and/or where to be transferred to”.
The nearest available ambulance, the communication by NHIF chief executive officer Geoffrey Mwangi says, shall be dispatched to the location or site after verifying membership validity.
These are some of the new services the NHIF has been adding to the medical scheme. Others include the cancer care package, out-patient services, dialysis cover and surgeries.
This comes months after a feasibility study on integrating HIV care into the NHIF was completed in April. It showed that Kenya requires nearly Sh86.3 billion by January next year if it is to include HIV treatment.
