Health Care Financing as a Strategy for Cash Management in Public Hospitals: A Case Study of Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya

Abstract

Healthcare financing been met with increasing and imposing demands for better and improved management of public funds. The cost of healthcare in Kenya remains a problem with slightly over 40% of the households unable to access health due to monetary challenge. Healthcare for the populace has reduced due to under-financing of the health sector. Opposing arguments have cited problems in management of available funds as facing healthcare financing. The main intention of this research was to investigate the effect of healthcare financing on the cash management at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The study adopted an exploratory survey design of 43 Financial and health service experts from MTRH. The study utilized a sample size of 43 respondents applying census sampling. Interview schedules and questionnaires were employed as data collection instruments. The study established that equity financing was a method of cash management in public hospital. On healthcare cash management, private insurance provide finances to hospital; can be accessed by all patients however their funds are not reliable sources for paying user service charges. In relation to debt financing, the enquiry established that there was reduced allocation of funds by the government, government financed treatments provide efficient cash management to some extent and are adhered to a great extent. Concerning the suitable cash financing for use in referral Hospitals, the study established that there was a need of hospitals to plan and organize investments to facilitate more cash incomes for its operations. Hospitals should also upgrade audit systems to enable effective cash management and monitoring of cash practices in the Hospital. The study commended that since the hospital depends on the feasibility of the health care system financial accuracy of the Hospital should be emphasized. The study also recommended that more people should be encourage to take up Insurance and prepayment schemes, in addition to the existing National Hospital Insurance Fund since it cushion them toward out of pocket payment for hospital bills and improve revenue generation potential of the user fee programme of the Ministry of Health.