The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) has dismissed reports circulating on social media alleging deletion of members’ data.
In a notice on Sunday, September 18, the state corporation affirmed that its database had not been infiltrated and the data is intact.
“Attention is drawn to social media posts alleging that the NHIF database for the last three years has been deleted. NHIF would like to categorically assure Kenyans that the database is intact and has not been tampered with in any way, as alleged in the various misleading social media posts,” NHIF said.
NHIF urged members of the public to ignore the reports.
“NHIF would like to appeal to the public to disregard the misleading social media posts. NHIF continues to deliver quality health insurance services, including regular member access in contracted hospitals across the country, based on information captured in the database,” NHIF added.
“Members can interrogate the database and check the history of their contributions through available self-care platforms: Dial USSD code *155#, download ‘My NHIF’ App, web portal www.NHIF.or.ke, or send SMS (type your ID no. i.e. ID 22334455) to the NHIF shortcode 1550.”
— NHIF Kenya (@nhifkenya) September 18, 2022
It had been alleged the data dating as far back as 2019 had been deleted, denying members of the public access to medical services.
NHIF suffers system outage
The reports surfaced on social media a week after a system outage at NHIF left many Kenyans stranded at various health facilities across the country.
Reports indicate hospitals were not able to access payment services to NHIF after a faulty power transformer caused the collapse of the systems.
“We would like to inform our members that due to unavoidable and unforeseen circumstances, the power supply system at NHIF building suffered a critical fault occasioned by a faulty transformer which is affecting the delivery of various services to our members,” the parastatal said in a statement.
Many of the affected Kenyans were discharged patients seeking to pay for medical services using their NHIF cards.
