Kenya's Social Health Authority (SHA) has introduced an SMS verification system that asks patients to confirm whether they received the medicines prescribed to them, in a move aimed at stopping hospitals from claiming reimbursement for drugs that were never issued. The system became operational on 1 November 2026 and was announced by Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale on Tuesday, 10 November.

Duale announced the initiative during the inaugural Africa Health Data Forum in Nairobi, saying the government intends to strengthen accountability and eliminate fraudulent claims within the healthcare system. Under the new arrangement, patients receive a text message while they are still at a healthcare facility, or shortly after their visit, asking them to confirm whether the prescribed medication was dispensed.

How the SMS checks work

Patients who confirm that they did not receive their prescribed medicines will trigger a verification process that could prevent the facility from receiving payment for the drug component of the treatment claim. SHA will still reimburse hospitals for other legitimate services, including consultations, laboratory tests and medical procedures, but will withhold payment for medicines that were not dispensed.

Duale urged Kenyans to check their mobile phones after hospital visits and to respond to the messages sent through the Digital Health Agency and SHA. He told the Daily Nation that the system had already identified cases in which doctors treated patients, sent them out to buy drugs, and then billed SHA for medicines that were never dispensed.

According to Duale, the system asks doctors on the Afya Yangu portal whether they are dispensing medicine. If the answer is yes, the patient should receive the medicine, yet in many cases patients left without drugs while SHA was still billed for them. He said SHA holds the names, telephone numbers, constituencies and counties of the affected patients and can follow up to confirm whether the services claimed were actually received.

Gaps found in medicine dispensing

The rollout follows concerns raised by the Ministry of Health over discrepancies between the number of patients treated in public hospitals and those recorded as having received medication. In April 2026, Duale told the Senate that the Digital Health Superhighway had detected worrying gaps in medicine dispensing at several county referral hospitals.

At Kakamega County Referral Hospital, approximately 52,000 patients had reportedly undergone consultations, laboratory tests and other medical procedures, but only 9,000 were recorded as having received medicines. A similar situation was identified in Bomet, where about 34,000 patients received treatment but only 4,600 were issued with drugs.

The findings raised concerns about possible diversion of medicines, weaknesses in hospital pharmacy management, and patients being forced to buy prescribed drugs from private pharmacies outside public facilities, despite being covered under the Social Health Insurance Fund.

Supply chain and what patients should do

The government is also seeking to address medicine shortages by encouraging county hospitals to procure pharmaceutical supplies through the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority, known as KEMSA. Duale reported that KEMSA's order fulfilment rate had reached approximately 92 per cent, meaning the agency was supplying most of the products requested by healthcare facilities.

Patients are encouraged to give accurate answers to the SMS verification messages, particularly when prescribed medicines are unavailable or have not been issued. The initiative forms part of wider digital healthcare reforms aimed at improving transparency, monitoring hospital activity and protecting public funds, and it builds on SHA's move towards electronic patient records and digital claims processing. Its effectiveness will depend on reliable mobile connectivity, accurate patient records and proper investigation of disputed responses.