Kuwait: Health Ministry eyes electronic system to collect premiums
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Jun 2017
The Ministry of Health is working on establishing an electronic system for collecting health insurance premiums from expatriates, in consideration of the upcoming expiry of the contract with the Public Services Company, which has been in charge of collecting insurance fees.
In this connection, the Ministry has formed a committee to oversee the transition from the current contractor to the next, according to a report in Arab News Kuwait.
A new tender will be floated for specialised companies to take over the responsibility of collecting health insurance premiums from expatriates on behalf of the Health Ministry, according to sources. This will continue until the Health Insurance Hospitals Company launches operations following the completion of the construction of hospitals for expatriates, which is expected in the next three years.
In January, the Ministry said in a statement that it had urged Public Services Company, which issues medical cards for expatriates, to continue its services until 27 July 2017 as per the contract signed by the two parties. It explained that the minister had given the required six-month notice on 19 January about its decision not to renew the contract after it expired.
There are three million expats in the country. Three hospitals and 15 polyclinics for expatriates are being built and are expected to be fully operational by 2020. Treatment of expatriates at public hospitals will be halted after the expat-only medical facilities are ready. M