Korea’s Health Insurance Review & Assessment system (HIRA) will soon be rolled out in Bahrain.

This is the first time for the HIRA system to be exported in its four-decade history.



On March 6, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRAS), the government body that handles the HIRA system, signed a deal with Bahrain’s Supreme Council for Health to work on a joint project to reform the Middle East country’s national health insurance system.

With the signing, from April this year through to November 2019, the HIRAS will share its Drug Utilization Review system, which traces and manages the distribution of medicines, and its National Health Insurance Information System, a database that processes insurance claims and examinations. The body will also share its Smart Utilization of National Electronic Medical Records system, which analyzes medical data and offers advice on how to use the records.

“We will put Korea’s effective HIRA system in place in our country and then will continue to spread its effectiveness to our neighboring Middle East countries,” said Sheikh Mohammaed Bin Abdulla Al-Khalifa, chairman of the Bahraini Supreme Council for Health.

“The deal that both sides have made today will hopefully help to further enhance our bilateral cooperation on health and medical services,” said Minister of Health and Welfare Chung Chin-youb.

By Kang Gahui, Sohn JiAe
Korea.net Staff Writers
Photo: Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service
kgh89@korea.kr