Abu Dhabi-based National Health Insurance Company (Daman) has announced comprehensive changes to its former ‘Enhanced plans’ in response to market and client demands for tailor-made solutions.

Previously, all plans fell into a broad ‘Enhanced’ category defined by geographical boundaries; now in a bid to simplify clients’ experience when selecting an appropriate health insurance plan, Daman has redesigned the available options into three concise categories: Core, Enhanced and Premier.

•    Core is an entry-level category of plans featuring essential benefits (inpatient, outpatient, emergency and maternity coverage) with annual coverage limits up to Dh300,000 ($81,650).

•    Enhanced builds on the basics offered by the Core plans and adds second medical opinion from international experts; international medical emergency coverage; annual screening for prostate, breast and colorectal cancer. Plans under this category will have annual coverage limit between Dh500,000 and Dh5 million.

•    Premier features all of the above benefits plus coverage for annual medical check-ups, alternative medicine, chiropractor services, home nursing and more. The Premier plan also has the largest healthcare provider network in the UAE and internationally. The annual coverage limit for this plan is Dh 5 million.

Core and Enhanced plans are sub-divided into tiers: Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Chrome, which offer greater customisation and affordability for clients to tailor plans to specific needs.

Further customisation is provided by choosing from additional ‘Added Benefits’ and ‘Cost Optimisation’ options which are then added to the base plan creating unique, cost-effective solutions.

Additional benefits include coverage for dental and optical medical services, alternative medicine and annual medical check-up while cost optimisation options include choices of deductible amounts and co-insurance on pharmaceuticals. For large organisations, this offers unmatched flexibility when creating company-wide programmes.

Daman's chairman Khaled Al Qubaisi said: “What sets us apart is our ability to serve 2.4 million members and manage a worldwide network of 9,600 medical providers efficiently and diligently.  The revamp of our market offering presents Daman's superior services in an easy and flexible range of health insurance solutions."

Daman’s chief executive officer Dr Michael Bitzer said: “Daman understands its clients’ need for quality services that are custom-made to their requirements. Our new health insurance plans will further assist Daman clients in choosing the right insurance solutions.”

Daman’s chief commercial officer Dr Sven Rohte said: “We approached this complete redesign in a very strategic way. We had to select a model that allows greater customisation for our clients while being simple for our medical service providers to understand when they serve Daman members with different plans.”

“Daman prides itself on its excellent customer experience, and the overhaul of our plans structure underlines our dedication to offering the best solutions in the best possible manner,” Dr Rohte added.

For clients with existing policies there will be no name changes until renewal. Clients will still be able to renew their existing policies with the same benefits under the new names, a statement said.

The Thiqa programme and Abu Dhabi Basic plan are not affected by this change, it added. – TradeArabia News Service