Perception of consumers in Mombasa on the quality of service offered by national hospital insurance fund

Abstract

African countries have implemented several changes in government policies in response to globalization. This has greatly affected the public sector especially the health sector and the running of public institutions like parastatals. The objectives of this study were to determine the expectations and perceptions of consumers of the quality of service offered by N.H.I.F. Further the study seeks to establish if there is a significant difference between the consumer's expectations and perceptions of the service quality of N.H.I.F. The study is modeled on descriptive design. The population of interest included all NHIF contributors in Mombasa. A sample of 100 contributors was picked as respondents. Structured questionnaires and likert scale questions were used to collect primary data. The questionnaires were administered while the researcher waited for them to be filled The results indicated that the consumers' expectations were high compared to their perceptions of the quality of service. Attributes such as responsiveness, access and courtesy recorded the highest expectations at a mean of 4.27,4.22 and 4.13 respectively. While understanding the customer, communications and tangibility scored means of 3.56, 3.83 and 3.97. The highest chi-square score was for understanding the customer at 0.79. N.H.I.F needs therefore to improve on this element to a great deal. The researcher recommends that further researcher can be on customer service perception of the service quality of other government parastatals to determine if the service is comparable to N.H.I.F.