JEDDAH: With the new regulations set by the Council of Cooperative Health Insurance (CCHI) in the Kingdom, the Cooperative Health Insurance industry has been presented with a challenging opportunity and BUPA Middle East is well ahead of the market in readiness for full implementation.
"The new regulations by the Council of Cooperative Health Insurance represent only one of the Kingdom's latest steps towards reforming the insurance market to one that is professionally managed and well regulated," asserted Eng. Loay Hisham Nazer, Chairman of BUPA Middle East.Under the new ruling, Cooperative Health Insurance is now compulsory for companies having more than 500 expatriate employees in the country.
The law aims to regulate Saudi health insurance and the provision consolidates health care for Saudi and non-Saudi residents in the Kingdom to ease the financial burden on the government which offers free medical services to some 22 million people, including about 7 million foreigners.
In line with the new requirements, BUPA Middle East, one of leading and largest international private Cooperative Health Insurance companies, has assured the market and its members that it is ready to offer Cooperative Health Insurance policies that meet the requirements of the Cooperative Health Insurance regulation law. "Our readiness in offering regulation compliant policies was a result of years of preparations from understanding the new law, drafting new products to integrating its requirements into our systems. You can rest assured that BUPA Middle East is more than ready to help the number of companies currently looking for policies to accommodate the regulation law," said Nazer.
Loay added "BUPA Middle East has continuously invested in its infrastructure, implemented major system upgrades, developed new techniques, deployed new services and employed and trained Saudi youth; all that to facilitate and accommodate the changes happening in the Saudi Cooperative Health Insurance market to be able to handle increasing numbers of members while sustaining and furthermore improving customer service".
The forward-looking vision of the BUPA Middle East's management has resulted in the implementation of numerous major e-business projects that have directly impacted both internal efficiency and service delivery.
For example, BUPA members in most of the large private hospitals can now get their treatment pre-authorized electronically. This e-service is extremely efficient, as it has more than halved on average pre-authorisation turnaround times.
BUPA's achievements were recognized last April at The Middle East Insurance Awards part of the 2006 Insurex Conference, the region's premier insurance conference endorsed by Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Deputy Ruler of Dubai and the UAE's Minister of Finance and Industry. BUPA Middle East won the e-business award, the first for a Saudi-based insurance company since the yearly event started.
About BUPA Middle East
BUPA Middle East (soon to be known in the market as BUPA Arabia), is part of the BUPA Group, one of largest international private health insurance companies, with an annual turnover that exceeds USD 5.6 billion. BUPA serves more than 7.8 million members in over 180 counties and is the leading Cooperative Health Insurance provider in the UK, Spain, and Hong Kong and is growing rapidly in Ireland, Australia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Singapore and China. Recently, BUPA International further expanded its reach with the acquisition of AMEDEX based in the United States and IHI.
The BUPA Group owns and manages 25 hospitals, most of them with ISO 9002 certification, 297 care homes and 34 health screening centres throughout the UK, 49 special care complexes, 40 children's nurseries and 220 approved health clubs. It employs more than 41,000 employees worldwide. The BUPA Group follows a long-term strategy of improving services and health care support by investing all its profits back into the business.
The Saudi Gazette 2006
