Saving For Healthcare : A Deep Dive Into M-TIBA’s Savings Wallet
Out of pocket payments for healthcare in Kenya are a common phenomenon given that only a small percentage (~20 %) of the population have a health insurance plan. This means that for families without an insurance plan, having a family member fall sick abruptly could really devastate the bread winners’ resources. To address this challenge it is essential to look for innovative and workable solutions to enable as many people as possible to access quality healthcare without falling into financial distress.
In 2016 CarePay in collaboration with Safaricom and PharmAccess rolled out in Kenya the M-TIBA platform - a digital platform which connects the patient, healthcare payer and the healthcare provider to facilitate seamless interaction between the three parties. Through the use of mobile based technology a patient at a healthcare provider is able to initiate a treatment using his/her phone and get treatment.
In particular one of the products under the M-TIBA platform is the My Health Funds wallet - a product enabling individuals to set aside funds that can only be used for healthcare expenditure. With a My Health Funds wallet, an individual is able to transfer funds from their M-PESA account to their health wallet. Similarly an individual can also remit funds to their loved one’s health wallet. These savings are then available for individuals and their dependents to be used in paying for healthcare at M-TIBA accredited healthcare facilities.
With over 2.5 million Kenyans registered into My Health Funds wallet currently, this product presents a solution to helping anyone with access to a mobile phone save for their healthcare. In a country where mobile penetration is a big hit, this is a relevant digital healthcare solution. But what have the savings and utilization of these funds looked like over the 4+ years of existence of My Health Funds ?
What is the typical amount saved or remitted in one transaction ?
Typically for both a saving and a remittance (transaction to another individual’s wallet) the amount is usually KES 100 (~ 1 USD). This illustrates that most individuals naturally save small amounts per transaction.
How have savings been distributed throughout the years and months?
We see a seasonal effect where in mid 2017 & mid 2018 we had the highest percentage of both transaction value and number of transactions. This could partly be explained by the fact that during these periods M-TIBA ran radio and roadshow campaigns to sensitize the public on saving for healthcare on M-TIBA.
We also see a downward trend especially in 2020 which could be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic taking a toil on financial resources of people hence the reduced saving behavior.
How does saving frequency and amount saved into wallets compare across different days of the week ?
Saturday is the weekday that records the highest percentage of value of transactions saved into My Health Funds wallet at 21% of value of transactions.
Similarly looking at the number of transactions done through out the week, Saturday records the highest at 24% of total transactions.
This can be attributed largely to the SMS campaigns usually sent on Saturday mornings to members with My Health Funds wallet to remind them to save some amount into their wallet. This is a clear indication that the SMS campaigns worked quite well in influencing members to save. We also see Sundays have the lowest percentage of transactions both in value and volume
How are savings distributed within the savers demographics ?
Looking at the value of transactions by age groups, the age group 30–39 takes the biggest share at 33%. Also age groups 40–49 and 18–29 have a considerable share at 25% and 22% respectively. This can largely be attributed to the huge mobile penetration for age 18-49.
From a gender perspective the distribution of value of saving transactions is split at Male(59%) Vs Female(41%)
Also looking at saving patterns by family size we see that majority of savers by far are individuals. Number of savings transacted by individuals contributed to 77% of all transactions. This means that majority of the savings can only be used to treat individuals as they lack dependents.
Having looked at the savings trends we can take a look into how the utilization of these savings have been used at healthcare facilities.
What is the typical claim amount from My Health Funds wallet ?
The typical claim amount from members using their savings wallet to pay for healthcare is KES 400(~4 USD). This is four times the amount we saw as a typical saving transaction onto the wallet.
How are claims amounts distributed ? Which is the most frequent claim amount bucket?
Looking at claim amount distribution it is expected to see that about 43 % of the claims fall on the 100-499 bucket given the typical claim amount. Also claims on 500-999 bucket are second most frequent with 33% of the total claims. We can also see bucket 0-99 has a significant share of 11%. It is evident that typically claims from My Health Funds fall on amounts less than KES 1000 (~10 USD) indicating that the nature of treatments given is general outpatient.
What is the cumulative claim amount distribution over time paid out to healthcare providers from My Health Funds wallets?
We see the amount dispersed to providers had a steep rise from 2017 when the health wallet gained traction. The amount dispersed has been on an upward trajectory ever since.
Which healthcare provider regions are most popular with My Health Funds ?
Generally My Health Funds wallet has been accepted as a payment option in many different counties. Looking at the top 10 counties by visits of patients using the healthcare wallet, Nairobi (39 %) and Nakuru (19 %) are the two top counties. For Nairobi particularly we have the most number of providers accepting healthcare payment through M-TIBA. Also the fact that most of the roadshow campaigns were done in Nairobi, this also helped in sensitizing the population in Nairobi about M-TIBA platform.
Wrapping Up
From the insights above we can see that while saving can be an integral part of financing one’s health care, the value of claims paid by My Health Funds doesn’t majorly reflect for high cost treatments which normally are covered by insurance. We are excited to see more insurance products being offered on the CarePay Platform like NHIF and affordable private insurance. The My Health Funds wallet is seen as an integral component in enabling anyone set aside funds continually to pay for their insurance premiums. Also healthcare providers have seen that being part of the M-TIBA platform is a great step to actualizing cashless payments that enable operational efficiency.
With more and more Kenyans taking up M-TIBA, the platform will play an essential role in getting universal health coverage a reality for Kenyans.
Check out my Github repository with the code used for the analysis.
