NHIF Building in Upperhill, Nairobi. file photo | nmg
Summary
- News that insurance broker AoN has suspended the contracts of 15 health providers found to have made fraudulent claims is as inspiring as it is disheartening.
- Inspiring because it shows that the insurance industry is at last beginning to get to grips with the massive fraud that has become predominant in the sector, retarding its growth.
- Such are the crimes that in well-organised societies should attract the cruellest punishments because of the harm they cause to the public interest.
News that insurance broker AoN has
suspended the contracts of 15 health providers found to have made
fraudulent claims is as inspiring as it is disheartening.
Inspiring
because it shows that the insurance industry is at last beginning to
get to grips with the massive fraud that has become predominant in the
sector, retarding its growth.
In making fraudulent
claims, the health providers are effectively stealing from the health
system that is barely able to meet the massive needs of ordinary
citizens, thereby undermining the general welfare of society --
including the health of insurance firms and corporate citizens.
Such
are the crimes that in well-organised societies should attract the
cruellest punishments because of the harm they cause to the public
interest.
Though 15 is a small number compared to the
thousands of service providers, it is our opinion that AoN should not
just end this by suspending these firms but should follow through with
firm legal action against them.
This is because such
fraud, which is most rampant in the service providers’ dealing with
State-backed health insurer NHIF, if not dealt with poses the danger of
crippling the national agency that has only recently rolled out services
such as paying the cost of surgery, dialysis and cancer treatment for
millions of poor Kenyans. These frauds must not be allowed to kill it.
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