MENA Health Insurance Congress Concludes in Dubai

The 5th MENA Health Insurance Congress discussing trends and innovations in the evolving healthcare sector took place in Dubai from 1st to 3rdOctober, the three-day event gathered policymakers, payers, and providers to discuss topics such as Value-Based Healthcare, private funding, managed care payments, revenue cycle management, medical coding, revenue optimization.

The discussions at the conference stressed on the importance of innovative reimbursement models delineated the importance of value based healthcare and the growing importance of providers in the health insurance sector. The new Dubai Standards of Care guidelines focuses result oriented treatments plans and efficiency in health insurance sector. In fact, it aims to move 90% of insurance payments from fee for service to alternative payment models.

After the mandatory health insurance was implemented in Dubai, gross amount of insurance claims in 2018 crossed 14.9 Billion AED. Experts also suggest that, despite the lower numbers, patients with health issues receiving treatment on one-time fee for service basis drain more of the healthcare resources with up to six times higher indirect cost than patients undergoing managed treatment. Since they end up having repeated outpatient visits, treatment failures and ER visits.

The government is encouraging innovative insurance payment in the healthcare sector as the public sector’s role is gradually transitioned to becoming more of a regulator rather than as a provider of healthcare facilities, as highlighted in the Vision 2021 KPIs and Dubai Standards of Care.

The MENA Health Insurance Congress is the largest gathering of global and regional insurance professionals in the Middle East and North Africa. The first day of the event hosted esteemed speakers including Ken Fan, Consultant, Price Regulation Lead, Dubai Health Insurance Corporation, DHA, who explained the implementation and benefits of Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGS); and Dr Fadia Almahdi, Senior Manager Pharmaceutical Care Management at BUPA Arabia, KSA. As well as panel discussions on topics, such as – ‘Future Trends in Health Insurance’ and ‘Hot Topics in the Health Insurance Landscape’, and a special workshop on ‘Reimbursement reform and impact on health insurance market’ by Dr Muhaned Attaullah, Revenue Cycle Manager, Imperial College London Diabetes Centre, UAE. 

Over the course of three days, the congress discussed a host of important topics including – ‘The Future Trends of Regional Health Insurance Outlook’, ‘Value-Based Care Models’, and ‘Revenue Cycle Management and Modernising Claims’. And feature an expert line-up of speakers including Lina Jichi, Manager of Health Financing Advisory and Monitoring Dept., Strategy Division Department of Health Abu Dhabi; Ahmed Ali Al Mamari, Vice President, Insurance Sector, Capital Market Authority, Oman; and Ahmed Mohammed Al-Saleh, CEO, Dhaman, Kuwait.