The Council of Cooperative Health Insurance (CCHI) has completed more than (151196) electronic procedures remotely, and launched 15 initiatives that aim to empower all parties to the relationship of insurance, preserve their rights and enhance the provision of highly efficient insurance health care services. This took place during the suspension period of work within the precautionary measures taken by the Kingdom to prevent the infection with Coronavirus (Covid-19) disease and limit its spread.
The Secretary General of the CCHI, Dr. Shabab Bin Saad Al-Ghamdi, said that the aim of the adopted initiatives is to reduce the impact of the ramifications of (Covid-19) disease, serve also all beneficiaries (insured, health care service providers, beneficiaries, health insurance companies and employers) and enhance the stability of the private health insurance market.
He explained that the initiatives were diverse, the most important of which are the adoption of controls and procedures through which the Kingdom bears the costs of testing suspected and confirmed cases of (Covid-19) disease, setting the mechanism for settling and paying the claims of 2019, and the cooperative health insurance policy coverage for telemedicine service for 90 days. The number of insured beneficiaries is 14090.
In addition to emphasizing that insurance companies must upload the insured data in all sectors on the developed document production system, open the medical network for suspected cases of (Covid-19) disease and treat them as urgent cases, adopt a mechanism for dealing with contagious cases that require isolation, and a mechanism for re-dispensing medicines to patients from the insured without the need to visit the clinic. The number of insured beneficiaries is 81,840.
Ensuring the coverage of health care costs for contagious cases that require isolation and basic vaccinations for children through home care services, as 5427 insured benefited from the coverage.
The initiative of suspending Paragraph (4) of Section (IV) of the general conditions of the health insurance policy in order to allow the two contracting parties (the insurance company and employer) to agree on the continuation of the policy insurance coverage in case of insolvency to pay insurance premiums, and extend the accreditation of health care service providers during the period (from 1 April to 30 June 2020) without collecting the financial compensation for that.
The initiative to support insurance companies and claims management companies, as the financial compensation for qualifying and re-qualifying procedures of these companies has been postponed to supervise the implementation of the system during the period (from 1 April to 30 September 2020).
He indicated that these efforts are originated from the CCHI's mission, which aims to promote the health of beneficiaries through a regulatory environment that focuses on prevention, empowering stakeholders and achieving transparency, justice, quality and efficiency.
Al-Ghamdi pointed out that the CCHI was able to develop its technical services system in advance, which effectively helped employees to carry out their works and tasks remotely, and canceled the beneficiaries need to visit the CCHI headquarters in order to ensure their safety and in compliance with social distancing and guidelines related to staying at home. Where more than (151196) transactions were made including issuing and renewing (30782) health insurance policies, receiving and answering (90000) calls through the standard customer service center, handling (29627) complaints and inquiries, accrediting and renewing the accreditation of (782) health care service providers and re-qualifying (5) health insurance companies.
In addition to organizing several teleconferences with the executive directors of insurance companies to follow up the latest developments in the sector and steps taken regarding the CCHI Strategy 2020-2024.
A tele-workshop titled (The Minimum Data and its Uploading Mechanism) was also held with the participation of more than 980 participants specialized in data and digital technology and representing various health insurance companies and health care service providers.
Al-Ghamdi pointed out that the CCHI launched a media campaign in eight languages (English - Hindi - Urdu - Filipino - Bengali - Swahili - Indonesian - Nepalese) titled (Stay Home.. All Our Services are in Your Hands), where it provided 400 media materials between videos, infographics and media publishing, in addition to more than 9,105,230 SMS text messages were sent.
Noting that all these efforts are concerned with raising awareness of the electronic channels to serve all relevant beneficiaries remotely, in addition to presenting health guidelines and instructions related to public health and prevention of (Covid-19) disease.
