Healthcare Schemes and Financial Performance of Public Hospitals in Nairobi City County Kenya

Abstract

Since devolution of health sector to the counties, performance in public health hospitals in Kenya has been an issue of concern in terms of inefficiencies resulting to poor service delivery and lack of quality of care in the hospitals.Despite the high coverage of NHIF, financial performance in public hospitals in Kenya has been an issue of concern. The overall goal of this research is to look at the impact of healthcare schemes on public hospital financial6performance in Nairobi City County.The specific6objectives were toestablish the effect of Civil Servants scheme, HISP scheme,Linda Mama scheme and National scheme on financial performance of6public6hospitals in Nairobi City County.This study was anchored on Health Insurance theory and Economic Efficiency theory.The descriptive design was applied in this study.The population of interest comprised of the 80 public hospitals in Nairobi7City County where the census technique was7used to completely cover the entire population.The study7covered7a period of 2 years7that included the7year 2019 and 2020. The secondary data was collected through a data collection sheet.The study carried out descriptive statistics and inferential analysis such as Pearson correlation and multiple6regression model was used to assess6the collective effect6of four independent6variables and depended6variable.The study7used Statistical7Package for Social7Science (SPSS) as a data7analysis tool. The study ensured that ethical issues were addressed and thus the researcher conducted diagnostic tests so as to ensure that the data did not suffer from Autocorrelation, Multicollinearity, Normality and Heteroscedasticity and thus enhanced data quality.It was concluded that Civil Servants scheme had a7positive and strong effect7on financial performance7of public hospitals in Nairobi7City County in terms of operating surplus/deficit.It was concluded that Health Insurance Subsidy programme had7a positive7and strong effect on financial7performance of public hospitals in Nairobi7City County7in terms of operating surplus/deficit.It was concluded thatLinda Mama scheme had7a positive7and strong effect on financial7performance of public hospitals in Nairobi7City County in terms of operating surplus/deficit.It was concluded that National scheme had a positive7and strong7effect on financial7performance of public hospitals in Nairobi7City County in terms of operating surplus/deficit.It was recommended that NHIF put in place good financial management practices so as to enhance accountability of the funds directed to the Civil Servants Scheme.NHIF should increase the level of funding through the Health Insurance Subsidy scheme as the scheme target the near poor people who may not afford health insurance.NHIF should sensitize more women to join the Linda Mama scheme so that they get prenatal and antenatal care through proper delivery in hospitals.NHIF should sensitize the public and especially those in the informal sector who are not covered by the National scheme on the importance of coverage while at the same time enhance accountability of the funds contributed.