Bupa Arabia has won the Best E-Business Solution category in the Middle East Insurance Awards presented in Dubai at Insurex, the premier independent insurance conference in the Middle East. It is the third time in four years that this prestigious honour has gone to the Saudi Arabia’s leading health insurer.
This year, Bupa Arabia won the award for its Basmah service, an identification method based on biometric validation utilizing a simple swipe strip. Although similar technologies are in use at airports, embassies and in some business sectors, Bupa Arabia is the first in Saudi Arabia and only the second company worldwide to use this service in the healthcare industry. In previous years, Bupa Arabia won Best E-Business awards for its interactive online services and the innovative Msg.Bupa SMS.
“We delighted to bring the Insurex Best E-Business Solution award back to Saudi Arabia for the third time,” said Tal Nazer, Managing Director of Bupa Arabia. “The awards reward excellence in all areas of the insurance industry and since they are independent and include all the GCC states and other countries across the Middle East, we are especially pleased to be recognized for Bupa Arabia’s performance as an innovative leader of the region’s heath insurance industry and a provider of world class services for our members and partners.”
“Generally, we have observed that, due to the increased load on health care providers, patients have to wait in line at reception and hand over photocopies of their IDs to start the registration process,” explained Fadi Diab, Head of Projects & IT at Bupa Arabia. “To speed up the process we have invested in this advanced technology, which validates Bupa Arabia members with the simple swipe of a card, giving them instant access to their policy benefits so that they can go forward for treatment and get well faster.”
Before Bupa Arabia launched the new service health care providers had to register all policy details in their system to be able to accept members, but with Basmah in place this is no longer required. The company has already implemented the system in over 60 healthcare providers and expects to have completed implementation throughout its entire network of more than 400 hospitals and clinics within the next 12 months.
“This initiative is a major step forward in the Kingdom’s health insurance industry because it enables health care providers to better cope with the rapid growth that we are currently witnessing,” added Diab, who concluded by saying: “Everyone at Bupa Arabia is excited about once again winning recognition for an industry first, which spurs us on in our continuous exploration of other innovative ideas to help our members live healthier and happier lives.”
Bupa Arabia is the only company in Saudi Arabia dedicated exclusively to health insurance and as such is able to focus its resources on listening to its members and taking care of each one as an individual person. The company has an exemplary rate of response to pre-authorization requests with the majority approved in less than 15 minutes, ensuring that patients receive prompt medical attention and get well faster.
