DUBAI If you are insured - which you must be by June 30 - you can now go in for direct billing against your insurance policy at Rashid Hospital’s Trauma Centre.
As the 786-bed hospital became the country’s biggest health care facility with the launch of its expanded wing this week (see box), Dr Haider Al Yousuf, director of health funding at Dubai Health Athority (DHA), said: “Insured patients can now opt for direct billing instead of reimbursement at Rashid Hospital’s Trauma Centre. They only have to pay the co-insurance (deductible patient share) as per their policy and the insurance company will pay the remaining amount directly to the hospital.”
Until now, insured expat patients visiting the hospital were first required to pay and then wait for reimbursement. The new provision will not only enable them to go in for direct billing during an emergency but also use the hospital’s highly specialised or unique services at other times. The claims limit will depend on the insurance policy and package.
Dr Al Yousuf said the provision will be extended to Latifa Hospital by May and cover all other public hospitals under DHA by yearend.
He said the Trauma Centre, which is equipped to deal with the most critical emergencies, including life threatening and loss of limb cases, receives an average of 600 patients a day. “However, 60 per cent of the patients are not critical emergencies,” he said, noting that the non-critical load would eventually be diverted to urgent care hospitals.
Huge benefit
The direct billing facility is expected to hugely benefit expat patients as their entire population will be insured by June 30. Last week, XPRESS broke the story on Takaful Emarat’s Mandatory Insurance for Dubai Residency Issuance and Renewal for individuals, specifically tailored for domestic/basic workers, spouses and dependents, including children and parents. The annual premiums for the product range from Dh650 for domestic workers and “not active at work” dependent children (0 to 65 years); to Dh1,750 for “not active at work” married women (18 to 45 years) and Dh2,500 for “not active at work” parents.
Rashid Hospital is now the country’s biggest hospital
The much-talked about expansion of Rashid Hospital has become a reality, with two floors housing 159 more beds being inaugurated by His Highness Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and President of Dubai Health Authority (DHA) this week.
The expansion, which raised the hospital’s capacity to 786 beds, has also made it the biggest in the country.
A tour of the new wing revealed that the second floor which comprises a 66-bed critical care unit, includes an 18-bed surgical ICU, 16-bed neurosurgical ICU and 32-bed medical ICU. The third floor has 93 beds used for general surgery, specialised surgery and fractures.
Dr Alya Mazrouei, CEO of Rashid Hospital, said new medical specialisations have been added to the hospital as part of the expansion. They include hand, liver and spine surgery, bone fractures and bariatric surgery. High-quality technology has also been added to the smart beds, including CPUs that track the status of the patient in bed to avoid cases of falling. It also ensures maintaining the status of the head (30 degrees) for brain stroke patients and a straight position for spine patients.
