Teachers pull out of TSC medical scheme deal
What you need to know:
- Aon Minet was contracted by TSC to manage the teachers’ medical scheme. This was after the teachers maintained that a medical scheme was one of the key requirements in the union’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.
- According to documents seen by Nation, AON Minet had sub-contracted Bliss GVS Health Care Limited to sign an agreement with different private hospitals, but the amounts they have provided for the cover are low.
Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has asked the teachers’ employer to stop any further deductions towards a medical scheme and refund deductions made towards the same.
On Monday, Knut Secretary-General Wilson Sossion wrote to Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia asking to stop deducting teachers the money as they had pulled out of the AON Minet Medical Insurance.
“Following extensive consultation in the union, we have decided to immediately disengage and distance ourselves from the contract entered between AON Minet and Teachers Service Commission,” said Sossion in the letter.
Aon Minet was contracted by TSC to manage the teachers’ medical scheme. This was after the teachers maintained that a medical scheme was one of the key requirements in the union’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.
This cover was meant for over 288,000 teachers, who would share a comprehensive Sh5.6 billion annual medical cover.
SELECTIVE APPLICATION
Mr Sossion said that they had pulled out as TSC was administering the scheme selectively, not according to the original plan where all teachers were to get covered.
“The union engaged with the Commission in good faith and towards achieving a unified medical scheme for all Teachers, it has however occurred to us, to our great surprise that the Commission, instead of facilitating the intent of the Scheme is using it to scuttle and create selective application of the Scheme. It has mismanaged it to the detriment of the Union and its members,” said Mr Sossion.
Secondary school teachers who are under Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) negotiated to be covered by National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) in a scheme tailor-made for teachers at half their medical allowance.
It has also emerged that the medical cover provided to the teachers was substandard, a medical expert has said.
According to Kenya Association of Private Hospitals (KAPH) vice chairman Dr Abdi Mohamed, the amount allocated per teacher is not enough to cover a teacher in a well to do private hospital.
LOW AMOUNT
According to documents seen by Nation, AON Minet had sub-contracted Bliss GVS Health Care Limited to sign an agreement with different private hospitals, but the amounts they have provided for the cover are low.
In the documents, Bliss has given a tabulation instructing doctors how much to charge for common ailments with an ailment like malaria being capped at Sh250 per patient.
“And that is where the problem begins because when Bliss puts such a low amount of Sh250 to cover consultation fee, Lab fee and medication, to treat malaria, no private hospital can operate on that budget,” explained Dr Abdi.
The doctor who owns a private hospital said that with the tight budget given, it was difficult for the doctors to give appropriate treatment.
“Private hospitals have therefore refused to sign the agreement because a doctor is handicapped in giving a full treatment, the teachers were shortchanged on this one. Bliss is the former Clinix which was engrossed in a scandal with NHIF,” he said.
