Health insurance complaints surged last year, said Saudi health council

Complaints against health insurance providers rose 900 percent year-on-year, to 52,000 complaints last year versus 5,200 a year earlier, Al-Madinah newspaper reported, citing the Council of Cooperative Health Insurance (CCHI).

The increase in complaints is attributed to changing the mechanism of complaints and raising insurance awareness, in addition to implementing the unified insurance policy, the council said.

Complaints against insurance companies reached 48,000 last year, while complaints against employers and service providers stood at 3,213 and 1,279, respectively.

In order to reduce settlement periods and raise performance efficiency, 90 percent of the service providers’ receivables were paid within 45 days, CCHI said in its annual report.