Saudi Arabia: Tenfold increase in health insurance complaints in 2017
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Jun 2018
The Council of Cooperative Health Insurance received 53,000 complaints in 2017 compared to 5,283 complaints recorded in 2016, reported Saudi Gazette. The majority of the complaints – 91.3% – were made against insurers with a total of 48,578 against 56 medical claims management companies, 1,279 complaints against providers of healthcare services, and 3,213 complaints against employers.
“These statistics are indicators that show the historical development that has occurred in customer service and reflect the efforts of the Council in protecting and serving the insured using the latest technical means,” said CCHI’s official spokesman Mr Yassert Al-Ma’arik.
The Riyadh region received the highest number of complaints with 14,175 cases followed by the Mecca region with 8,402 cases. Al-Baha recorded the lowest number of complaints. Mr Al-Ma’arik said the increase in the number of complaints was due to several reasons, including the high level of people’s awareness of their insurance rights and the development of customer service management and communication channels of the Council, as well as smartphones and social media access.
Claims paid by health insurers to healthcare providers exceeded SAR15.3bn and the total health insurance premiums subscribed reached SAR18.9bn by the end of last year, according to the Council. More than 2.73 million Saudis were insured, hitting 23% of the total population. The number of expatriates covered by health insurance services was 9.3 million, comprising 77% of the total population.
Over 4,000 CCHI-accredited healthcare providers, 27 health insurers and nine claims management CCHI-qualified companies, which make up an integrated medical network, rendered their services by the end of 2017. M
SAR1 = $0.27