M-TIBA and Kenya Healthcare Federation (KHF) have announced a new SMS-based service to help the security agencies identify essential healthcare service workers.
This is in response to these workers facing travel restrictions during curfew hours and movement into or out of counties with restricted movements. Security personnel are also increasingly concerned about the authenticity of paper-based passes being used to identify essential service providers.
M-TIBA has developed a verification platform for security officers to check that people are healthcare workers providing essential services.
They can do this by sending a free SMS with an ID number of the healthcare worker to 20253. They will receive a confirmation message from M-TIBA authenticating the ID – and vehicle registration details, if available.
This will help KHF members, who are providers of gazetted essential services, to carry on with their official duties during curfew hours, or when transiting through restricted areas.
Over 2,000 staff of KHF member organizations have already been registered on the pilot platform. It is expected that a further 2,000 healthcare workers will register in the coming weeks.
M-TIBA, was developed in Kenya, by CarePay and is used by insurers and healthcare providers for the secure digital administration of large-scale health schemes via mobile phones.
It enables members to manage their medical insurance benefit using their mobile phones while also providing real-time integrated data exchange between patients, insurers and healthcare providers.
M-TIBA has been working with the healthcare sector to deploy mobile technology in the fight against COVID-19. Recent developments include using contactless systems to verify patients seeking treatments at hospitals.
“As all efforts are directed towards containing the spread of COVID 19, we need to simultaneously support and maintain the availability of essential workers, medications, equipment and supplies. Our partnership with M-TIBA will help our members and the security services smoothen the flow of these essential services at this critical time,” said Dr. Anastasia Nyalita, CEO, Kenya Healthcare Federation
Moses Kuria, Managing Director, CarePay Kenya, said they will continue to work with healthcare providers and insurers to find new ways to use the platform to ensure the safe and uninterrupted provision of healthcare and supplies.
“The mobile is a powerful weapon in Kenya’s fight against COVID-19. Our development team have done a fantastic job in rapidly building and deploying this ID verification module on M-TIBA,” said Kuria.
