High Covid-19 medical bills put insurers in financial dilemma

Insurance underwriters will hold a crisis meeting in Nairobi following a public outcry that the players in the industry are not paying medical bills to Covid-19 patients in Intensive Care Units (ICU).

The Association of Kenya Insurers (AKI) Chief Executive Officer Tom Gichuhi said he held talks with some of the medical insurance underwriters on Thursday over the matter saying “there is a lot of uncertainty and the industry players need to clear the air.”

“I have talked to medical insurance underwriters and they have agreed to meet on Friday) or Monday and will give a comprehensive report on the matter,” said Mr Gichuhi.

Mr Gichuhi said that the underwriters have had different positions and AKI would like to share a comprehensive information with the public once it gets it.

COMPREHENSIVE REPORT

“We want to issue a detailed and comprehensive report to the public and AKI want to find out what progress medical insurance underwriters have made so far in meeting the Covid-19 related medical insurance cover claims,” said Mr Gichuhi.

A doctor handling one of the patients in a high end hospital told the Nation that huge medical bills were draining the medical insurance industry which was caught off guard by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

 “Some high end hospitals in Nairobi are charging as high as Sh200,000 per day and now the rich people are also finding it hard to sustain themselves in the hospital while the medical insurance firms are also in tight corner as they were not prepared for this new health challenge,” said medic.

RICH PATIENTS

This comes at a time when some rich patients have been inquiring about ICU equipment in most of the pharmaceutical outlets in Nakuru town in a bid to set up ICU beds inside their homes.

Dr Timothy Olweny of Evans Sunrise hospital said his hospital has not set up any VIP isolation centre

“At Evans we don’t regard covid-19 cases on the basis of status because that would be a wrong approach. We have set aside rooms but not necessarily for the VIP,” said Dr Olweny.

However, he said the hospital will set aside rooms for health care workers at the facility if they contract the disease.

He said it was not possible to set up an ICU bed at home saying “it is not equipment that treats Covid-19 patients and those buying is a selfish thing to do.”

“The level of expertise required to manage ICU equipment is so high such that even if you bought the machines it would serve no purpose,” said Dr Olweny.

He said the best approach is to ensure all medical facilities have a fair distribution of resources that could easily be accessible to everybody.

“Insurance companies are not compensating Covid-19 related medical expenses or deaths and there is need to pull resources as the expenses incurred by patients at ICU due to Covid-19 is very high and even the rich are now crying,” said Dr Olweny.

He said some hospitals had slapped patients in ICU with medical bills ranging between Sh200,000 and Sh250,000 per day which many insurances cannot pay.