M-TIBA has landed a partnership deal with Bayer in its ambition to execute more partnership deals in the digital health space. The service was unveiled a while back courtesy of CarePay, Safaricom and PharmAccess Foundation to enable users send, save and spend funds solely on medical bills. The service allowsusers to save money in its wallet that can only be spent to settle bills accrued due to treatment and medication at partner clinics as well as hospitals.
Bayer was launched way back in 2013 in Berlin Germany as a means to partner with startups and healthcare technology companies across the world that are developing innovative solutions in healthcare. The firm has so far enlisted 11 participants from over 750 applications across 65 countries.
As the name suggests, M-TIBA is based on Safaricom’s mobile money service – MPESA to allow users make important transactions such as sent, save or pay for their medical services. Recently, the firm partnered with Minet Kenya insurance as well as AAR to expand its usage.
PharmAccess Foundation has so far enlisted M-TIBA for registrations on universal health coverage pilots for three of four pilot counties in Kenya (Kisumu, Nyeri and Machakos). It leverages on mobile money technology to enhance its accessibility to even remote areas within the country.
Speaking on the development, Bayer’s Head of Digital Health, Eugene Borukhovich indicated the organization was amazed by the growing maturity of digital health startups as he acknowledged having had had to make some very tough decisions. He also added they were excited to jointly develop and scale new digital solutions that will help change the accessibility of health for patients and consumers. On their side, the Managing Director of CarePay Kenya Moses Kuria said, the partnership was going to help CarePay improve the M-TIBA platform’s capability and reach. He acknowledged they were building a better and more secure health financing solution for individuals and organizations focusing on making healthcare more accessible to all.