Member News

Making sure everyone is covered, and tracking treatment and prescription across the Emirate of Dubai are key deliverables for the government and healthcare industry.  As the e-system becomes joined-up, the data on which it runs needs verifying.  That’s what we’re doing with our clients, in partnership with insurers and government departments.  Together with your PRO, we may need two or three passes through your census data.

In October 2019 the databases of the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) the General Department for Residential and Foreign Affairs (GDRFA), and the insurance companies were linked together.  There are many good reasons for joining up this part of our government, which cares for everyone living here.  Primarily it’s so nobody goes without cover.   

Because all treatment and prescription now has to go through the e-services gateways, the following seven pieces of data need to match between the insurance companies and the government before a medical insurance policy can be formally issued:

• Emirates ID Number
• Unique Identifier Number (the admin ‘master tag’ for you)
• Date of Birth
• Passport Number
• Full Name (Matching the name in the passport, letter for letter, space for space)
• Nationality
• Visa File Number

When a policy is sent for approval, the insurers transmit a spreadsheet of the members’ data to the GDRFA.  The GDRFA run a check between their database, the DHA database and the insured members’ details.  If there is a match, the policy can be issued for that member.  If there is an error or mis-match, then an error report is generated, and we have to track the cause and correct it.  Only when the data matches can a policy and card be issued.

There are many small errors that can cause a mis-match.  Most are really simple data entry mistakes like putting MM/DD/YYYY instead of DD/MM/YYYY for date of birth, the name in the insurance record is different from the passport name, or there’s a gap in the census, where a number is missing.  If there is an error report we look at it with the company PRO, who will help us identify these mis-matches.  If the data is wrong in the company records we correct it and re-submit.  If the data is wrong in the Government records, the PRO will then visit an immigration centre with the original documents and the errors will be corrected on the GDRFA system.  We like to do this in one (virtual)  visit, so that everything is done together.

Effectively, the insurance industry and company PROs are acting as an audit for the GDRFA’s data.  That’s a good thing for many reasons.  For example; it makes it more difficult for unwelcome people to enter the country; and less likely that treatment centres will be defrauded by one person claiming to be another (imposter fraud).  Most importantly it means that the GDRFA can see if anyone is without cover.

Please be patient with everyone, especially under the current pandemic conditions.  It’s a ‘greater good’ outcome, and will make your life easier too.  Your Lifecare contact is available if you have any questions.

 Jason Freeborn

Senior Employee Benefits Specialist

Telephone:  +971 (0) 4 305 9500 ext: 588

Mobile: +971 56 547 7616