The Second Regional Forum on Medical Insurance and Healthcare is successfully concluded with 25 strong recommendations; most importantly is coming up with a form to allow healthcare companies to join national insurance federations. The forum called on the General Arab Insurance Federation (GAIF) to accept membership of healthcare companies according to a number of regulations and to hold a conference about medical insurance discussing related issues in the Arab countries. The forum also called on the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) to develop the rules regulating the medical insurance sector and organizing the relationship among insurance parties. It also suggested issuing a law regulating the activities of healthcare companies in order facilitate the licensing procedures. It also affirmed the importance of subjecting all medical insurance and healthcare products under the supervision of EFSA. In addition, the forum called on insurance and healthcare companies to reduce the costs of the services and to innovate products and services that cater to the needs of customers. It recommends expanding in micro insurance services which will benefit a large segment of customers in Egypt and the Arab countries. It points out the need to raise awareness about medical insurance and to qualify administrative, technical and marketing cadres as well as considering studies and researches in developing insurance products. The forum says how insurance brokers play important role in supplying the needs of the market. Moreover, the forum stressed the importance of implementing electronic communication techniques among insurers, healthcare firms and providers of healthcare services. Keeping documents and contracts secure is also crucial, it says, adding that insurance policies shall use micro-printing technique to combat potential fraud. The forum also demands fostering cooperation among insurers and healthcare firms in order to fight fraud and encouraging insurance companies to transfer medical insurance claims to the concerned bodies according to the rules and regulations. It also calls for concerted efforts to reconsider the procedures needed for offering healthcare services and combating fraud in collaboration with regulators. The forum called on insurance companies to set up a medical insurance database and asked national insurance federations to establish national medical insurance database and to cooperate with other federations. The forum ended its recommendations with highlighting the importance of modern technologies and applications to limit fraud actions.
