Complete HMIS & DHA Guide (FY 2026/28)
Last updated: July 2026
The Government of Kenya, through the Social Health Authority (SHA) and the Digital Health Agency (DHA), has initiated the country's largest healthcare digital transformation.
Beginning with the FY 2026/28 SHA Contracting Cycle, every healthcare provider wishing to contract with SHA must operate an accredited Health Management Information System (HMIS) that complies with the Digital Health Act and is capable of integrating with the national digital health ecosystem.
The previous SHA Provider Portal is being phased out. Healthcare providers are now expected to transact directly from their HMIS.
SHA is responsible for healthcare financing, processing claims, provider contracting, patient benefit verification, and healthcare payments. SHA requires providers to connect electronically to its centralized digital platform.
DHA is responsible for digital health regulation, HMIS certification, national interoperability standards, the Health Information Exchange (HIE), national health registries, and digital health governance.
The DHA does not provide hospitals with an HMIS. Instead, it certifies and regulates digital health systems.
Historically, healthcare providers used the SHA Provider Portal to submit claims manually.
Old Workflow:
Hospital → SHA Provider Portal → Claims Submission → Payment Processing
This process is now changing.
New SHA Compliant Workflow:
Hospital → Hospital HMIS → SHA Central Digital Platform → Claims Processing
The Provider Portal will be progressively discontinued. Every hospital must now submit claims directly from their HMIS.
To be SHA compliant, healthcare providers must:
Failure to comply may affect SHA contracting eligibility.
The directive does not require hospitals to purchase a government HMIS, replace their existing HMIS, or use one specific software vendor. Hospitals may continue using their preferred HMIS provided it satisfies DHA certification requirements and integrates successfully with the national ecosystem.
The transition aims to reduce manual claims processing and duplicate data entry, improve healthcare data quality, reduce fraud, waste and abuse, enable real-time eligibility verification, improve claims adjudication and provider performance monitoring, enable interoperability across Kenya's healthcare system, and strengthen national health data management.
Your hospital must have a working Health Management Information System. If you don't have one yet, or your current system is outdated, this is your first priority. Comptracks Systems can build or upgrade your HMIS to meet SHA requirements.
Your HMIS must be able to submit claims electronically to SHA, verify patient eligibility in real time, exchange health information securely, and meet DHA interoperability standards. Our HMIS SHA Integration service handles this entire process.
Your HMIS must be certified by the Digital Health Agency. DHA certification evaluates security, privacy, patient safety, interoperability, system reliability, data quality, and regulatory compliance. Our team can guide you through the DHA certification process.
Your team needs to know how to use the new system for electronic claims submission, patient eligibility verification, digital health record management, and secure information exchange.
Work with SHA to complete the technical onboarding process: API credentials setup, testing connectivity, validating claims submission, and going live with production integration.
If you're an HMIS vendor or building a custom system, you'll need to apply for DHA certification directly.
Healthcare providers that fail to meet the prescribed HMIS requirements risk:
One of the most important concepts introduced by the new regulations is interoperability — the ability of different healthcare systems to securely exchange and understand health information without manual intervention.
SHA Compliant Data Flow:
Patient Registration → Hospital HMIS → National Health Information Exchange → SHA → Claims Processing → Payment
Comptracks Systems Healthcare Interoperability service ensures your systems can exchange data securely using HL7 FHIR, REST APIs, and other industry standards.
Compliant HMIS solutions must support secure API communication, electronic claims submission, electronic service verification, secure information exchange, DHA standards compliance, continuous online connectivity, data protection under Kenya's data protection laws, and national interoperability standards.
| Standard | Purpose |
|---|---|
| REST APIs | API communication |
| HL7 FHIR | Healthcare data exchange |
| OAuth 2.0 | Authentication |
| OpenID Connect | Identity verification |
| TLS Encryption | Data in transit |
| Audit Logging | Compliance tracking |
| RBAC | Access control |
| Secure Data Storage | Data at rest |
SHA
│
Central Digital Platform
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National Health Information Exchange
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Integration Middleware
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Existing HMIS
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Hospital Operations
The integration layer handles data transformation, authentication, API communication, error handling, audit logging, monitoring, and synchronization.
SHA compliant means your hospital's HMIS can electronically connect to SHA's central platform to submit claims, verify patient eligibility, and exchange health information — without using the manual SHA Provider Portal.
Ensure you have a functional HMIS, integrate it with SHA's digital platform, achieve DHA certification for your system, train your staff, and complete SHA onboarding. Contact Comptracks Systems for help with this process.
No. The directive does not require hospitals to replace their existing HMIS. You can keep your current system — it just needs to be made compliant through integration and DHA certification.
Hospitals that fail to meet SHA compliance requirements risk losing their SHA contracts, being unable to renew contracts, and being excluded from SHA-funded healthcare schemes.
Typically 3–6 months, depending on your current systems and readiness.
DHA certification is the process by which the Digital Health Agency certifies that a digital health system meets Kenya's standards for security, privacy, interoperability, and regulatory compliance under the Digital Health Act.
The latest SHA directive does not require hospitals to replace their existing HMIS. Instead, it requires healthcare providers to operate an accredited HMIS, integrate with SHA's digital platform, meet DHA certification requirements, and participate in Kenya's national digital health ecosystem.
The government's objective is to establish a secure, interoperable, fully digital healthcare environment where healthcare providers exchange information electronically rather than through manual portals and disconnected systems.