Saudi Health Insurance Council addresses 53,000 health insurance complaints

The official spokesman of the Council of Cooperative Health Insurance Yasser Al-Ma’arik said that the Council received 53,000 complaints during 2017 that were resolved. There was an increase of 907 percent compared to 5,283 complaints recorded in 2016 that were received through the call center of the Council and they were 244,000 calls, Riyadh newspaper reported.

Al-Ma’arik said, “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. 91.3 percent of these complaints were against insurance companies with a total of 48,578 against 56 medical claims management companies, 1,279 complaints against providers of health care services, and 3,213 complaints were against employers. The Riyadh region had the highest number of complaints with 14,175 cases and 27 percent followed by Makkah Region with 8,402 complaints and 16%, while Al-Baha recorded the lowest number of complaints with 2,133 and 4% of the total number of cases.

Al-Ma’arik confirmed that it continues its efforts to improve the service of its customers since the inception of the Council and the health insurance sector to protect the rights of the insured. The aim is also to provide excellent customer services, which is one of the most important elements of the Council’s mission. Recently, the Council integrated a CRM program to develop these services.

He added that customer services constitute a key pillar in the evaluation of services. Therefore, the name of the complaints and violations department in the old structure has been changed to become the customer services department within the operational model of the strategic plan of the Council 2020.

He pointed out that the increase in the number of complaints is 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, such as the service number: 920001177 and e-portal: www.cchi.gov.sa and e-mail: info@cchi.gov.sa as well as smartphones and social media access.