The government has officially stopped the use of OTP-based authorisation under the Social Health Authority. Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale said that starting today, all approvals must now be done through the biometric health ID or the Practice 360 app.
He said this while launching the national biometric verification system at the Kenyatta Teaching Research and Referral Hospital. According to him, the new system is already working in all level 4, 5, and 6 hospitals, and plans are underway to include level 3 and 2 hospitals too.
The use of biometric data means that patients no longer need to carry physical documents when visiting hospitals under SHA.Duale explained that this change is part of a larger effort to fight fraud in Kenya’s health insurance system.
He said that fake claims and misuse of public money have been a major issue, and the new system is meant to seal those gaps. With this new plan, healthcare workers will use the Practice 360 app to manage authorisations, claims, and approvals directly from their phones or computers.
The app is also set up to work only in registered health facilities where the workers are based.
Apart from the biometric system, the Ministry of Health has also launched two other tools to improve healthcare.
The first is the National Product Catalogue, which is designed to keep fake drugs out of health facilities.
The second is the Health Information Exchange system, which allows hospitals and clinics to share patient records safely. Duale said that these tools will cut down on paperwork, which often slows down treatment and causes long waiting times.He also pointed out that the biometric system is not only about stopping fraud.
It’s also about making health services faster and better. He said that with less paperwork, patients will get help quicker, and healthcare workers will have more time to take care of them. So far, over 25 million people in Kenya have signed up for the new health insurance programme.
More than 10,000 health centres, both public and private, have been brought into the system.Duale warned that from now on, SHA will not pay for any medicine that a hospital does not actually give to patients.
He added that pharmaceutical companies must upload their product information to the system within 30 days or risk being removed from the programme.
