Kenya's Ministry of Health is seeking to designate an insurance company to provide Mandatory Inbound Travel Health insurance for visitors staying in the country for less than a year.
Under the Ministry’s Administrative Framework for Implementation of the Mandatory Inbound Travel health Insurance Programme, the requirements include:
a) A joint offer from a local insurance company reinsured by an international/local reinsurer, a local/international third-party administrator (TPA);
b) Details of the proposed methods to collect the insurance premium, in multiple ways and internationally;
c) Refund policy if entry into the country is not granted;
d) Not necessitate investment from the government; and
e) A full commitment to apply the Data Protection Act of 2019, Act as well as European General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) or American California Consumer Private Act (ACCPA) data protection standards.
Local insurance company
The local insurance company shall be required to:
1. Demonstrate experience in providing travel and or health insurance and having in place a valid approval from Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) to issue Inbound Travel Health/Medical Insurance in Kenya;
2. Provide a valid and executed reinsurance treaty and policy document.
3. Have a Gross Written Premium of over KES2bn ($15.5m) in Kenya;
4. Give a list of at least five reputable clients each with total annual premiums of KES100m for the previous financial year;
5. Evidence of having an extensive panel of medical providers in all 47 counties in Kenya to serve the insured;
6. Demonstrate claims settlement history of over KES50m for the previous two financial years;
7. To ensure efficiency, the local insurance company can appoint a Third-Party Administrator (Local or International); and
8. The local insurance company and the Third-Party Administrator (TPA) must deposit a joint venture agreement as part of the assignment.
International reinsurer
The international reinsurer shall be required to have:
1. A superior financial strength rating—meaning ‘A++’ (AM Best) or ‘Aa1’ (Moody's) or ‘AA+ ‘(Standard & Poor's) Rating—is preferred and an added advantage;
2. global experience and working in over 20 countries, and more than 30 years’ of operations;
3. a capital base of over $10bn, and annual gross written premium (GWP) of over $3bn;
4. been listed as one of the top reinsurers in the world according to global rating agencies such as Standard & Poor’s (S&P) or AM Best latest market segment annual report.
Third-party administrator
The local insurance company and/or or third-party administrator (TPA) shall be required to:
1. Have over 50 years of experience in serving and providing administration services to at least 2m lives;
2. Have a minimum premium turnover of over $250m per year;
3. Demonstrate or provide a list of relevant assignments carried out in the last five years that best illustrate the capacity to undertake such a project;
4. Have provided administration services and/or third-party administrator services related to travel health insurance to policyholders in at least five continents across the globe;
5. Have a record of working with international reinsurers and local insurers, in handling over 1m customers per year;
6. Have a contractual agreement with a credible locally sourced Claims Administrator or insurer with a current International Organisation For Standardisation (ISO) ISO 27001 certificate;
7. Have in place already signed contractual agreements with the empanelled healthcare providers both in Kenya and internationally across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas;
8. Have proven experience in cost containment and keeping the loss ratio under 50%. The administrator must present recommendations from leading reinsurers on cost containment for the programme; and
9. Demonstrate ability to deploy an IT system that is fully owned by them and runs on a microservice platform. The platform must be Global Data Protection Ratio (GDPR) compliant, with inbuilt International Classification of Diseases (ICD), and ICD 11 capability, as well as illustrate integration to multiple users and large volumes of insured within one ecosystem.
The mandatory health insurance requirements align with the Social Health Insurance Act of 2023. The selection of insurers has been delayed for more than a year.
The number of foreign visitors to Kenya has been on the rise, with the country receiving around 2.39m international arrivals in 2024.