JEDDAH, 11 June 2004 — The Saudi German Hospitals (SGH) Group and Waseel have signed an agreement to provide Internet-based communication with insurance companies. The service will allow hospitals and insurers to send and receive medical approval, verify eligibility and process other formalities electronically.
The agreement was signed by Sobhi A. Batterjee, president and CEO of the SGH Group and Mousa A. Al-Rubaian, the CEO of the National Company for Cooperative Insurance (NCCI) on the sidelines of the First Saudi Insurance Forum that concluded here on Wednesday.
Waseel was established in partnership with NCCI to provide information technology solutions for the health care industry.
“Currently, payers and providers in our health care industry are chained to old paper-based verification and payment systems that are barely sufficient to mange current business volumes,” explained Wassim Khashoggi, the CEO of Waseel.
“The government’s new legislation is about to result in a huge and rapid increase in the number of people covered by health insurance, and any health care business not prepared will be paralyzed by paperwork,” he added.
He said Waseel developed a facility for health care providers, payers and customers, who can use the Internet-based business-to-business portal and do away with paper, phone and fax communication.
