The SHA transition, without the panic.
NHIF became the Social Health Authority — the biggest change to how Kenyan facilities get paid in a generation. Here's what actually changes for a Level 2–3 clinic or a pharmacy, what you need in place to bill SHA, and why you don't have to wait to start.
Four things, and a lot of noise.
Strip away the headlines and the move from NHIF to SHA comes down to four practical changes for a small facility.
NHIF became SHA
One national scheme — the Social Health Authority, branded Taifa Care — replaced NHIF, with cover organised across the primary-health, insurance and emergency funds.
Claims went electronic
A paid visit becomes a structured FHIR claim submitted through the Digital Health Agency's rail — not a paper form dropped in at month-end.
Diagnoses must be coded
Claims carry ICD-11 codes, so a diagnosis on a scrap of paper isn't enough — the code has to be behind it, captured at the visit.
Certification is the gate
To be SHA-contracted, your software has to be DHA HMIS-certified. No certification, no SHA billing — whatever a brochure claims.
The path to getting paid by SHA.
Your facility is empanelled with SHA and your patients are registered members — the identity every claim hangs off.
Contract with SHA for the funds and services your facility actually provides, so the claims you file are ones you're paid for.
The system of record that files claims has to be DHA HMIS-certified. This is the vendor's job — ask exactly where they are in it.
Capture ICD-11 at the visit, raise the eTIMS invoice, and the SHA claim builds from the same record — no month-end retyping.
The exact steps, funds and tariffs are still settling as SHA rolls out — treat this as the shape of it, and confirm the detail against SHA and the DHA directly (links below).
You don't have to wait for SHA to go digital.
Certification and contracting run on a timeline you don't control. So the sequence that de-risks you is the reverse of what you'd expect: digitise now for the value you already get, and switch SHA on the moment it's ready.
How cash-first works- Value on day one — one record, FEFO stock, M-Pesa and cash that reconcile, an eTIMS invoice on every sale.
- Coded from the start — ICD-11 on diagnoses, so the data's ready the day SHA switches on.
- Built to certify — claims assemble from the visit; live rails drop in without redoing your workflow.
- SHA, M-Pesa and eTIMS are simulated on synthetic data today, and go live once we're DHA-certified and credentialed.
SHA, plainly.
Yes. NHIF was replaced by the Social Health Authority (SHA) — the scheme most people call Taifa Care. Contributions, membership and how facilities are paid all moved onto the new digital system.
Guides & official sources.
SHA-ready, the day you are.
See Salus on your own workflow in 20 minutes — cash-first, no rip-and-replace, no long contract.