Table of benefits

A table of benefits is the schedule an insurer publishes listing each benefit a health plan covers, the limit or sub-limit on it, and the co-pay that applies. It defines the product; the rate chart only prices it.

Also called TOB, Benefit schedule. Updated

Two documents, one product

A UAE health plan is defined by two documents that arrive separately and are formatted differently: the table of benefits and the rate chart. The table of benefits says what is covered. The rate chart says what it costs. Neither is usable alone, and they are almost never laid out to line up with each other.

What is on it

Annual aggregate limit. Territorial scope. Room type for in-patient accommodation. Out-patient consultations, and whether they carry a co-pay and a cap. Maternity, split between normal delivery and caesarean, with a waiting period. Dental and optical, usually as small sub-limits or optional extras. Physiotherapy, as a session count. Psychiatric cover. Chronic and pre-existing terms. Repatriation.

Why it resists comparison

Every insurer orders it differently, names the rows differently, and states limits in different units — a figure, a percentage of the annual limit, a session count, or "as per policy". Putting four of them side by side means normalising all of that by hand, which is why brokers do it once a year and then quote from memory for eleven months.

Loading it once

The reason to read a table of benefits into structured fields is not tidiness. It is that a quote can then state the benefits the same way every time, and a comparison can put four plans in one grid with the rows actually lined up.

Where this comes up

Related terms

In Rabt

Every one of these is a field in Rabt

Co-pay, network, age band, waiting period — Rabt holds them as data on the plan, so a quote states them the same way every time and a comparison can line them up.