For UAE Project to reduce waiting times for patients with basic plans

UAE Project to reduce waiting times for patients with basic plans

Abu Dhabi Health Services Co (SEHA) has launched a pilot project designed to reduce waiting times for patients with basic insurance covers when obtaining medication, said media reports. The scheme will start at SEHA's health clinic, Al Nahda Primary Health Centre, and will be rolled out to nearly 60 public clinics and health-care centres in Abu Dhabi. Under the pilot scheme, a request will be automatically sent to insurance companies seeking authorisation for medication as the pharmacist processes an order. At present, a doctor's order for medication is sent electronically to the pharmacist who then faxes a copy to the insurer, and follows up with a phone call. Ms Donna McCormick, Corporate Clinical Applications Director at SEHA, was quoted as saying: “The current system requires pharmacists to fax insurance companies and determine if the prescribed medicines are covered, or if patients must pay for them on their own. This can take a long period of time, even up to an hour or more.” She said that SEHA will develop the pharmacy insurance payment authorisation system based on lessons learnt at Al Nahda Clinic. “We hope to then roll it out to all Seha clinics. A later phase of the project, which we hope to launch in the summer of 2014, will work to obtain insurance coverage information as soon as medicines are prescribed by the physician or doctor, thus speeding up the process even more,” she added. 

 News Source :  www.meinsurancereview.com