How to pay NHIF late penalties

  NHIF

Health insurance is vital for every citizen, perhaps exemplified by the 1966 legislation that set up this scheme. This coverage (covers all diseases) according to the National Health and Insurance Fund (NHIF) and is all-inclusive for both employed and self-employed. Mandatory contributions by the 9th of each month are characteristic of this health insurance scheme. This strict timeline at times may make an employer or self-employed persons run afoul of it. Statutory regulation proscribes NHIF penalties for late payments depending on whether the beneficiary in question is the employer, employee and self-employed individuals accordingly.

How to confirm your NHIF penalties

In case you default payment or make late payments it’s essential to check your NHIF status and find out how much you owe NHIF. You can check by using SMS as follows.

  • Compose a message ID space then your ID number
  • Send the message to 21101 or 6443
  • The service provider will charge you Ksh. 10 for the SMS service
  • NHIF will send a message detailing your penalty and due contributions.

So you have successfully confirmed how much to pay NHIF in penalties which you have accrued, what is the next step?

NHIF offers its beneficiaries an easy MPESA payment option of their penalties and contributions. Here is how to go about it.

Penalty NHIF payments using Mpesa

  • Go to your phone SIM toolkit and select MPESA
  • On the menu options select Lipa na Mpesa
  • Enter the business number required as 200222
  • On the Account details section enter your ID number e.g. 123456
  • Add the letter “y’ to your ID number e.g. 123456y
  • This allows the system to classify the payment as a penalty
  • Enter (Ksh 250) for each defaulted month on the Amount section (For self-employed individuals)
  • Enter your Mpesa PIN and okay the transaction. You will be charged a standard fee of Ksh. 15.
  • You will receive a confirmation message from Safaricom and another from NHIF acknowledging the transaction.

However, for Employers, the penalties and procedure are different given the huge penalties they attract as a result of defaulting at times as high as double the defaulted amount.

Employers especially corporations can use bank deposits to pay their employees arrears including penalties accrued due to late or lack of remittance.