Saudi German Health Says AI Has Cut Insurance Claim Rejections and Payment Times

Speaking at Khaleej Times' New Age Finance & Accounting Summit in Dubai, Group CFO Khaled Ahmed said the revenue lost to rejections has fallen to 3-4 percent from 5-6 percent. "That's a massive change supported by the AI practice as we speak," he said.

For hospital operators this goes straight to working capital. A rejected or delayed claim ties up cash that the hospital has already spent on treating patients, and in large hospital groups those claims can be worth millions.

Ahmed said the group mainly uses AI in revenue cycle management, the back-office process of billing insurers and collecting payment. The system flags what insurers are rejecting, sorting rejections by type of claim, doctor, specialty and disease, so staff can fix documentation problems before claims go out.

"If you are not compliant with such a document, your claim with millions is rejected. And they can keep it there forever until you sort it out," Ahmed said. "With the AI contribution, this rejection rate is not a problem anymore."

Payment times have also come down. "Instead of collecting your claim in 90 days with less problems and obstacles, that's going down to 75, sometimes 60," he said.

Ahmed did not say which AI tools or vendors the group uses, or what it spent on them. Large technology companies are targeting the same work: Google Cloud this week launched a healthcare product aimed at automating hospital and insurer paperwork.

Tax advisers at the summit also warned UAE companies to prepare early for corporate tax requirements. Prateem Sengupta, a partner at Andersen, said businesses claiming the 0 percent rate on taxable income up to Dh375,000 should get ready now for an agreed-upon procedures requirement he said would "hit you in about October 2027".