Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — The Council of Cooperative Health Insurance (CCHI) has received 53,000 complaints during 2017 compared to only 5,283 in 2016.

This marks increase in complaints by 907 percent in just one year, CCHI spokesman Yasser Al-Maarik said. “These figures show the historical improvement in dealing with costumers and reflect the role of the council in protecting those who have insurance,” he said.

According to him 91.3 percent of complaints are all against health insurance companies, while 56 percent were against insurance claim companies. Other complaints were against health providers. Riyadh tops the list as it accounts for 27 percent of complaints followed by 16 percent of companies received from Makkah region while Al-Baha recorded the least received complaints with only 4 percent of all complaints received.

According to Al-Maarik the increase in the number of complaints reflects the increase of awareness among those who have insurance and also because of the development in the consumer department at the council. The council, he added, pays extensive efforts to improve its technical means to enhance its observation and organization role in line with the growth in health insurance market.

The council announced earlier this year that the claims paid by the health insurance companies to healthcare providers exceeded SR15.3 billion and that the total health insurance premiums subscribed reached SR18.9 billion by the end of last year. The number of insured Saudis was more than 2.73 million, hitting 23% of the total number of the insured individuals. The number of expatriates covered by health insurance services was 9.3 million, comprising 77% of the total number of those insured. The services are provided through an integrated medical network that by the end of 2017 reached more than 4,358 CCHI-accredited healthcare providers, 27 health insurance companies, and 9 claims management CCHI-qualified companies.