Today noon, at his office, His Excellency the Minister of Health, and Chief of the Health Insurance Council, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, has signed a contract with Al-Elm Information Security Co. to provide the 2nd Developed Version of the Electronic Linking Service of Medical Insurances Documents, for five years. It is essentially meant to obligate the passport procedures on the issuance or renewal of residence, to the effect that the expatriate, and his family, are covered by the health insurance umbrella.
Having the contract signed, Dr. Al-Rabeeah was quoted as saying, “The Health Insurance Council shows keen interest in harnessing developed technology, which is crucial for coping with the cultural and technological renaissance booming under the reign of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, who has always paying particular attention to the health sector, especially the development and provision of high-quality health services.”
“Seizing technological opportunities and harnessing them for the work of the Cooperative Health Insurance Council will contribute to attaining objectives, and saving efforts,” Al-Rabeeah continued. “This will also bring into effect the Council's sought-after mission, which is the supervision on (and organization of) the health insurance sector, as well as providing health care for all those working at the private sector (both citizens and residents).”
His Excellency the Minister of Health further pointed out that, according to the signed contract, all health insurance information will be transferred, by way of electronic linking, between the Health Insurance Council and al-Elm Co. “In so doing,” Dr. Al-Rabeeah concluded his statement, “the Council is pursuing a crystal-clear vision with regard to the development and improvement of the services provided for beneficiaries, most notably the health workers, who comprise the segment targeted by the Cooperative Health Insurance System. This is expected to be positively reflected on the performance of the health insurance industry.”
For his part, the Secretary General of the Cooperative Health Insurance Council, Dr. Abdullah al-Sharif, affirmed that al-Elm Co. will be providing for the Council the WAP service address, alongside the username, password, and the other information necessary for the implementation of the service, meanwhile taking into account making sure that the number of transactions per minute between the company and the council will be unlimited, so as to be available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
He further expounded that the deadline for developing the WAP services will be four months ahead. Meanwhile, he called upon all health insurance companies to quickly embark on the transfer of information and documents to the Council, in order for the latter to send such information and documents, in turn, to the company, by means of the information exchange electronic mechanism.
According to Dr. Al-Sharif, this is the second contract to be signed with al-Elm Co. for the very same purpose. The first, signed in 2006, brought about the effect that about 25 million correct electronic transactions for transferring health insurance information to the National Information Center have been approved, and 3 million transactions rejected for data-entry errors and typos, or mismatch of the expatriates' numbers with those of employers. In addition, 2.5 million e-transactions have been cancelled due to the insured person's departure from the Kingdom, sponsorship transfer, or changing the insurance company.
It should be noted that this contract has been modified to cover the information transferred to the National Information Center, by way of applying the health insurance governance, reducing sources disputes between health insurance companies and employers with regard to maintaining the insured persons' rights, based on certain health-insurance statistical databases. The contract implicated, also, raising the quality of data transfer, by applying direct transfer of information between health insurance companies and the National Information Center. The mechanism of action of this project will be totally electronic. Al-Elm Co. will be develop the necessary applications to that end, as well as exploiting encryption and verification techniques to protect information during the transfer process, through the HTTPS Protocol, with a view to carrying out connectivity and linking in concordance with the standards approved by the Health Insurance Council.