DHA's standard reads like a set of screens. Each rule becomes a step in your booking flow, a field in your record or a duty for your clinical team.
Telehealth in Dubai must be physician led. Nurses and allied professionals can provide services under the treating physician's direction and clinical supervision. The rules around the team include:
DHA-licensed physicians living abroad can consult patients in the UAE if they are affiliated with a DHA-licensed facility. If telehealth is added to an existing clinic, it must not take away the staff needed for in-person care.
Consent must identify the patient with at least three identifiers, from full name, date of birth, Emirates ID number, health record number and contact number. Teleconsultations also need authentication and verification.
Before any service, providers must verify the patient's insurance eligibility and tell them about any expected out-of-pocket cost. Insurers in Dubai must recognise and reimburse telehealth in line with Dubai Health Insurance Corporation standards, provided the service meets their terms and clinical necessity requirements. Claims go through eClaimLink, using approved ICD and CPT codes.
The physician decides whether telehealth suits the case, and records that decision. Before starting, the team explains the scope, timing, record keeping, privacy, risks and follow-up, in language the patient can understand. Patients can ask for a face-to-face referral, and that request must be respected.
Narcotic, controlled and semi-controlled medication cannot be prescribed or dispensed through telehealth. For everything else, the treating physician must:
Appendix 5 of the standard lists common drug classes and indications, along with recommended tests. Your clinical pathways and prescribing protocols must include red flags for referral and emergency referral, and be reviewed regularly. A virtual second opinion is different: it is advisory only, with no prescriptions or orders.
You need a written emergency protocol suited to your service, with a service contact number and a local emergency number. It must be tested regularly, and the results and improvements documented.
Complex or emergency patients must be referred for face-to-face consultation or emergency services. Advice to seek emergency care must not be delayed, whatever the patient's insurance plan. Sentinel events and major incidents go to DHA's Medical Complaints Section.
Telehealth providers must keep this information available online:
Plan these pages into your website from the start. Your facility also needs policies on billing, scheduling, cancellation and refunds.
DHA's KPI guidelines ask telehealth facilities to report access measures, such as referrals to in-person care and urgent referrals, and quality measures, such as medication and antibiotic prescribing rates and patient and provider satisfaction.
A note on timing: the standard says quarterly, while the KPI guidelines, issue 3, say annual submission with a 5 to 14 January window. Confirm the current requirement with DHA, and collect the data monthly so that either works.
HealthcareSetup UAE also has a broader guide on how to start a telehealth business in the UAE, and our other guides cover the licence model and platform rules.
DHA says telehealth services must be physician led. Nurses and allied professionals may provide services under the direction and clinical supervision of the treating physician, and clinical assessment is reserved for a DHA-licensed physician.
Narcotic, controlled and semi-controlled medication. Physicians must also prescribe from the MOHAP drug list and tell patients which groups cannot be prescribed through telehealth.
The standard says consultations should be offered in at least Arabic and English, and encourages interpretation services for other groups.
The standard says licensed payers in Dubai must recognise and reimburse telehealth according to Dubai Health Insurance Corporation standards, where services meet the terms and clinical necessity requirements. Check each insurer's policy for limits and prior authorisation.
HealthcareSetup UAE builds the clinical team, pathways and systems for telehealth businesses, and Pharmareg UAE handles DHA licensing. Both are brands of the same company and publish this guide.
The licence, clinical team, platform, records and supply chain, run as one project and handed over ready to trade.
healthcaresetup.ae ↗Regulatory affairs in the UAE: DHA telehealth licensing, NABIDH, accreditation support, and pharmaceutical and medical device registration.
pharmareguae.com ↗