August 2026 ยท Labor & Employment ยท 9 min read ยท Ahmad Abdulla Ahli Advocates & Legal Consultants
Changing jobs in the UAE should be straightforward. However, a common problem arises when a new employer asks for a Certificate of Continuity (COC) for medical insurance and the previous employer refuses, delays, or simply ignores the employee's request.
A Certificate of Continuity is documentation relating to your previous health insurance coverage. It can help establish your identity as an insured member, your previous coverage, the relevant policy period, and continuity of prior medical insurance. It becomes particularly important when an employee leaves one company and joins another whose insurer needs information about the employee's previous health coverage.
A COC is not the same as an employment or experience certificate. An experience certificate relates to your employment history; a Certificate of Continuity relates to your insurance history. Therefore, even if HR says "we cannot issue a COC", that does not automatically end the matter โ the correct question becomes which insurance company, broker or administrator handled your previous medical insurance, and whether it can provide your continuity certificate directly.
Where medical insurance was provided under an employer's group policy, the employer may have been the policyholder while the employee was an insured member โ which is why employers commonly deal with the insurer when employees join or leave the group policy. However, the actual insurance records are held within the insurance system, and depending on the insurer and policy arrangements, the insurer, its administrator or its servicing channel may be capable of generating or confirming continuity information directly. You should not rely exclusively on your former employer.
Do not rely only on phone calls or WhatsApp messages. Send HR an email including your full name, employee number, Emirates ID number, previous health insurance card or membership number, employment dates, approximate insurance coverage dates and the reason the COC is required. Ask HR either to provide the COC, or to provide the name and contact details of the insurer, broker or administrator responsible for issuing it. Keep a copy of the email and any response.
Identify your previous health insurer from your old medical insurance card, insurance emails, the insurer's app, previous claim approvals, or HR onboarding documents. Contact the insurer's member services and state clearly that you were previously insured under your former employer's group policy and require a Certificate of Continuity confirming your previous coverage, providing enough identification for the insurer to locate your record.
Your former employer may have arranged insurance through a broker, a Third-Party Administrator (TPA), or another servicing provider. If the insurer says the request must go through the group policyholder, ask which broker, administrator or department manages the group policy and what procedure a former member should follow to obtain proof of previous coverage.
Ask for the refusal in writing, then use the insurer's official complaint procedure. Your complaint should state that you were insured under the policy, that your employment has ended, that your new insurer or employer requires evidence of continuity, that your former employer has refused or failed to assist, and the specific remedy required โ namely, your Certificate of Continuity or equivalent official confirmation of your previous coverage and coverage dates.
The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) currently provides a unified insurance complaints system through which insured members can submit complaints concerning insurance companies, free of charge and available to nationals, expatriates, residents and visitors. For matters falling within Abu Dhabi's system, the Department of Health โ Abu Dhabi (DoH) maintains its own health insurance complaint service.
Sanadak, the UAE's independent financial and insurance ombudsman, can also be relevant, particularly where the dispute is with a UAE-licensed insurance company. Its current procedure requires consumers first to submit an official complaint to the insurer and allow 15 calendar days to pass without a satisfactory written resolution before the escalation criterion is met. Sanadak expressly includes health insurance among the matters its complaints process can address โ which is another reason every request should be made in writing.
Not necessarily as a first step. A health-insurance Certificate of Continuity should not automatically be treated as an ordinary employment certificate. If the underlying problem is the insurance company's refusal to provide insurance documentation, the insurance complaint route is usually more directly relevant. However, if the former employer is withholding employment-related rights or documents more broadly, the position may need separate assessment under UAE labour law, principally governed by Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, as amended, with MOHRE providing a process for employment disputes within its jurisdiction.
Possibly. Ask your new employer or its insurer whether it can temporarily accept alternative evidence, such as your previous insurance card, cancellation certificate, an official insurer email confirming coverage dates, or another insurer-generated confirmation of previous coverage. Do not assume an alternative document will automatically be accepted โ ask the new insurer to confirm acceptance in writing.
If your previous company refuses to provide your Certificate of Continuity, follow the insurance trail: Former Employer โ Previous Insurer โ Broker/TPA โ Formal Insurer Complaint โ DHA / DoH / Sanadak. Our Labor & Employment team assists employees navigating insurance-continuity disputes and related MOHRE matters โ read more about our Labor & Employment Law practice.