The DoH plans to address areas of improvement to home care services, including:

• providing clearer guidelines on patient eligibility;
• improving the definition of services provided in a home care setting;
• requiring clearer licencing for home care providers, including international accreditation requirements;
• enhancing the supervision of home care services by competent physicians;
• defining clearer patient-discharge mechanisms;
• strengthening the home care referral process to strictly follow medical advice;
• and rewarding quality and better patient experience through innovative, evidence-based reimbursement structure.

As considerable portion of the population in the Emirate country are expats, it’s fair to assume that these new regulations will have a positive impact on these individual’s access to care. And it’s good timing too, as a recent report from Aetna highlighted that since the global pandemic emerged, expats, including those in the UAE area, are keen to enhance their international private medical insurance (IPMI) cover.

As such, IPMI providers should look to enhance their support services to these expats through the new enhanced at-home care services (especially at a time when remote and virtual access to care is encouraged) and achieve increased customer engagement and satisfaction.