Aimed at SMEs, corporate and government organisations, this new region-specific service will enable workers to access medical insurance and assistance from their mobile phone or laptop.
SmartCare by Cigna Insurance Middle East (CIME) offers employee assistance programmes, telehealth, clinical care for critical illness and mental health solutions.
Improving physical, mental and emotional wellbeing
Users can access CIME’s HealthHub Suite which will allow them to book appointments via the app, as well as provide access to its Cigna Body & Mind app, a personalised tool dedicated to helping employees improve their physical, mental and emotional well-being.
All non-nationals based in the UAE must have health insurance in order to stay in the country and companies are responsible for providing valid insurance for their employees.
However, as employers prefer to keep premiums low, many have chosen the least flexible options for their workers in the past. In a recent report, Cigna discovered that there has been a gap between employee expectations from their health cover and what they actually receive.
“Health and wellbeing remain a priority for employees, with 74 per cent seeking enhanced health cover – but only 28 per cent actually receiving it,” Cigna said. The new service aims to bridge this gap by providing flexible plans for ‘wide-ranging health cover that includes chronic and pre-existing conditions, regular health check-ups, and pandemic coverage’.
Meanwhile, a survey of expats living in Australia, Hong Kong, The UAE and the US last month found that 38 per cent feel the quality of their mental health has declined during the Covid-19 pandemic.
When asked about the resources available to them in their country of residence, respondents were by and large disappointed by the services they had access to. Only 10 per cent said that they felt ‘confident’ about the professional mental health resources available, while 22 per cent said that they were ‘sceptical’, 46 per cent were ‘uncertain’ and 11 per cent reported themselves as feeling ‘unsatisfied’.
