(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The National Health Insurance Company (NHIC) yesterday launched a SMS service for beneficiaries of the national health insurance scheme (Seha) as part of efforts to prevent misuse of the scheme.
A text message will be sent to any member visiting any of the clinics or hospitals included in the Seha provider network to verify that his/ her medical request has been received successfully, NHIC said yesterday.
"This service is to build up on "Be Our Eyes Campaign" that was launched last February, aiming to reveal any potential fraud or abuse. This SMS is considered to be one of the tools to detect such activity; in case the receiver of this SMS did not visit the medical facility, we urge them to report immediately to our customer service call center," said a NHIC statement.
Meanwhile, Dr Faleh Mohammed Husain, acting CEO of NHIC told an Arabic daily that the company had received 28 calls related to suspected misuse cases of late.
The company receives about 200 calls daily through its 24 hour hotline service- 8008800- which is open not only for Seha beneficiaries but also for service providers.
Until the end of March, about 300,000 citizens availed of medical services under Seha. Currently the scheme covers all citizens and will be expanded to expatriates by the end of next year. The Seha provider network currently includes 207 clinics and hospitals in the public and private sectors.
Three primary health centers- Al Daain, Al Gharafa and Omar bin Khatab - joined the scheme last month.
Faleh Hussain said the NHIC has been receiving a number of complaints against service providers as well as the Seha beneficiaries. Majority of the complaints are about the poor services of the healthcare providers.
The company also received complaints from service providers against Seha members, mostly related to misuse of the services.
Asked about patients visiting different doctors for the same illness, the official said, sometimes people are doing it because they are not satisfied with the check up or treatment they received during the first visit.
He said in the near future, an electronic system will be introduced to prevent members from visiting more than one specialist for the same case.
He said the NHIC is also working on a centralised electronic medical registration. This will be finalized by the end of this year.
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