Photo credits: Nation Media Group
About one week ago, the country’s largest medical underwriter Jubilee insurance was involved in a back and forth tussle with Nairobi Hospital over debt claims. The Nairobi Hospital management released a statement informing the public of striking off of the insurance firm from the list of medical cover providers in the hospital. In a letter to Jubilee Insurance Executive Officer, the hospital said the firm had not paid amounts of up to well over Kshs 357 million accumulated since the year 2018.
In a breakdown of the figures, the hospital said in the year 2020 alone so far the firm had not cleared claims of up to Kshs 96 million, over Kshs 47 million in 2019, and Kshs 33 million in 2018. However, the insurance firm refuted these claims attributing the standoff to the hospital’s failure to verify hospital bills amounting to only Kshs 80 million and not Kshs 357 million as per the hospital.
“The hospital failed to justify payment of some bills adding up to about Kshs 80 million compared to an approximate business of Kshs 1 billion per year. We have been keen to resolve the impasse with the hospital, who unfortunately have not been forthcoming,” read a statement from the Chief Executive Officer for Jubilee Insurance Julius Kipng’etich.
The insurance firm urged its members to seek medical services in other institutions where Jubilee is registered as a cover provider. “We remain committed to bringing this issue to an amicable closure at the earliest to provide our customers with a seamless experience at The Nairobi Hospital. We continue to maintain strong partnerships with all our other medical service providers and advise our customers to seek quality and seamless service from our expansive panel.”
Photo credits: Jubilee Insurance
However, the members of the insurance firm can now breathe a sigh of relief as a statement on Wednesday last week declared that the standoff had been solved and that services were back and running. “We are pleased to inform you that normal services at Nairobi Hospital have been restored. Our sincere apologies for the inconvenience this may have caused and we assure you of our commitment to continue offering you seamless medical services,” a statement signed by the Head of Customer Experience at Jubilee Insurance outlined.
The insurance firm recorded losses attributed to high premiums set occasionally to beat the high cost of drugs quoted by doctors. The high premiums, therefore, attracted fewer subscriptions from the members of the public. However, the insurance firm remained generally afloat as it remains one with the largest market share, 18%, in medical cover business. This the firm has attributed to investment in ICT systems that bar fraud such as over quoting among others.
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