In brief
- Every international Hajj pilgrim now needs a medical fitness certificate before a visa is issued1.
- For providers, the visible cost is assessment time; the hidden costs are document reading, liability, rework and lost data.
- For insurers, screening creates a detailed health picture each season that rarely reaches them in usable form.
- Most of these costs come from the same root: records that are scattered, unstructured and hard to reuse.
Questions this guide answers
- What does Hajj screening involve for providers in 2027?
- How many people perform Hajj each year?
- What happens if a pilgrim is wrongly certified as fit for Hajj?
- How can screening providers reduce the time each Hajj assessment takes?
- Do Hajj pilgrims have health insurance?
- How can insurers use Hajj screening data?
- Does Jonda Health work with Hajj screening providers and insurers?
In 2026, 1,707,301 pilgrims performed Hajj, 1,546,655 of them from outside Saudi Arabia2. Since that season, none of those international pilgrims can receive a Hajj visa without a medical fitness certificate1. National programmes have made screening a gate at every step: Malaysia's Tabung Haji makes passing health screening a condition of its Hajj offer3, and Pakistan requires a certified fitness certificate before pilgrims can make their second payment4.
For the clinic groups, hospital chains, screening centres and laboratories doing this work, that means assessing large numbers of mostly older pilgrims against strict criteria, on tight deadlines, from records that rarely arrive in usable form. For insurers covering pilgrims, it means a detailed picture of each pilgrim's health is created every season and then left largely on paper. The visible cost is the time spent in each assessment. The hidden costs sit around it.
1.55mInternational pilgrims at Hajj 2026, each now needing a fitness certificate2
170,700Indonesian pilgrims classed as high risk in 2026, out of 221,0005
179,210Hajj 2027 places for Pakistan4
~300Indonesian applicants found not fit to fly in 20266
How screening often runs todayFolder of papers and photos→Doctor reads it all→Decision on paper→Re-keyed into a portal→Folder goes home
How it could runRecords sent ahead→Structured history→Doctor reviews and decides→Record, upload and summary→Data reused next season
Which Hajj screening costs fall on providers, and which on insurers?
The five costs fall differently on providers and insurers. The table gives our view of where each one lands hardest.
| Hidden cost | Screening providers | Insurers |
|---|
| 1. Doctor time lost to reading documents | High | Low |
| 2. Liability without a clear evidence trail | High | Medium |
| 3. Rework at every stage | High | Low |
| 4. A blind spot on pre-existing conditions | Medium | High |
| 5. A season's data that is never used again | Medium | High |
1
Providers
Doctor time lost to reading documents
Much of an assessment is spent finding and deciphering evidence rather than judging it: phone photos of lab reports, scanned letters, results reported in different units, and records in several languages. The pilgrims are often older and living with several conditions; Indonesia classed 170,700 of its 221,000 pilgrims as high risk in 20265, and each of those histories takes longer to piece together. With deadlines such as Pakistan's upload window, which closed on 20 October4, that time comes straight out of capacity in the busiest weeks of the year.
Signs this is costing you
- Appointments overrun when pilgrims bring large folders
- Doctors ask pilgrims to come back with missing results
- Staff re-type results before the doctor can review them
What helps
- Collect records before the appointment
- Turn them into a structured history the doctor can scan
- Show gaps early, so pilgrims can fill them in advance
2
Providers
Liability without a clear evidence trail
Doctors who certify ineligible pilgrims face action, and pilgrims who fail the standards are returned home at their own cost7. Certificates are checked again at airports, hotels and the holy sites8, and the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah has said it will take corrective measures against countries whose pilgrims are found to have restricted conditions9. That pressure flows down to every provider. If a decision is questioned, the provider needs to show exactly what was reviewed, and a paper folder that went home with the pilgrim cannot do that.
Signs this is costing you
- You cannot say which documents a doctor saw for a given pilgrim
- Decisions are recorded as a tick box with no reasoning
- Doctors are reluctant to take on complex cases
What helps
- Keep reviewed documents, criteria and reasoning together
- Record the version of the criteria applied
- Make every decision retrievable on request
3
Providers
Rework at every stage
Hajj screening is rarely a single appointment. India runs two stages, with the same reports checked again closer to departure10. Indonesia screens in layers from the local facility to the embarkation hostel11, and Singapore sends uncertain cases to a medical panel12. Medical missions then care for the same pilgrims abroad. When the history lives in a folder, each stage starts from scratch.
Signs this is costing you
- Second-stage teams repeat tests already done at the first
- Panel reviews wait for documents to be re-sent
- Missions abroad ask pilgrims to recall their own medications
What helps
- One structured record each stage can build on
- A concise summary that travels with the pilgrim
- Shared access, with consent, across stages
4
Insurers
A blind spot on pre-existing conditions
Hajj screening produces one of the most thorough health reviews many older pilgrims will ever have, yet that picture rarely reaches insurers in usable form. Saudi Arabia has attached a comprehensive insurance policy to foreign pilgrims' visas, provided by local insurers13, and pilgrims may also hold travel or takaful cover at home. When a pilgrim needs care abroad, documentation may come from a Saudi hospital in another language and format, with little history to set it against. Malaysia's Tabung Haji, for example, now refers pilgrims needing further treatment to Saudi hospitals rather than running its own treatment centre14.
Signs this is costing you
- Claims from abroad need manual translation and review
- Pre-existing conditions are disputed after the event
- Pricing for older pilgrims relies on age bands alone
What helps
- Structured, consented health information at the point of cover
- Claims documents from abroad made usable on arrival
- Clear links between screening findings and claims
5
Providers and insurers
A season's data that is never used again
Indonesia used its evaluation of the 2026 season to tighten screening for 20276, showing how much one season can teach the next. Providers and insurers hold similar lessons: which conditions most often lead to deferral, where records are usually missing, which pilgrims needed care abroad and what that care cost. Locked in paper and scanned files, none of it can inform staffing, pricing or the next season's screening.
Signs this is costing you
- Each season is planned from scratch
- You cannot say how many pilgrims were deferred, or why
- Insights stay with individual doctors or claims handlers
What helps
- Screening outcomes kept as structured data
- Analysis after each season, with consent and pseudonymised where appropriate
- Findings fed back into criteria, staffing and pricing
Five questions to ask your team before Hajj 2027
- How long does a typical Hajj assessment take, and how much of that is spent reading documents?
- If an authority questioned one of last season's certificates, could we show what the doctor reviewed?
- How often does a pilgrim's history have to be gathered again at a later stage?
- What do we know about pilgrims' health before they need care abroad, and in what form?
- What did last season's screening tell us, and where is that information now?
How Jonda Health can help
JondaX
Make pilgrim records usable
- Takes lab reports, discharge summaries, clinical notes (in beta) and photographed device readings, in any format and many languages.
- Cleans and harmonises them, applies clinical review and quality checks, and maps them to medical coding standards.
- Gives your doctors and claims teams structured information to work from, rather than piles of documents.
Jonda Health Services
Design the process around the data
- How records are collected before assessments, and how decisions are documented.
- How information is shared, with consent, with medical missions and insurers.
- How each season's data informs the next, with data flows designed to comply with local data protection law.
If you build the software that screening providers use, our companion guide, 7 Things Your System Needs Before Hajj Screening Season, sets out the capabilities in detail.
Frequently asked questions
What does Hajj screening involve for providers in 2027?
Every international pilgrim needs a medical fitness certificate before a Hajj visa is issued1. Providers assess pilgrims against the Saudi exclusion criteria and national requirements, often across several stages, and the certificate is then uploaded to national systems, in Pakistan's case before the second Hajj payment4.
How many people perform Hajj each year?
In 2026, 1,707,301 pilgrims performed Hajj, of whom 1,546,655 came from outside Saudi Arabia2. National quotas for 2027 include 179,210 places for Pakistan4 and 31,600 for Malaysia3.
What happens if a pilgrim is wrongly certified as fit for Hajj?
Pilgrims found not to meet the standards can be returned home at their own cost, and doctors who certified them face action7. Saudi Arabia has also said it will take corrective measures against countries whose pilgrims arrive with restricted conditions9. This is general information, not legal advice.
How can screening providers reduce the time each Hajj assessment takes?
Collect pilgrims' records before the appointment, turn them into a structured history the doctor can review quickly, and show missing evidence early so pilgrims can supply it in advance. The doctor's time then goes on clinical judgement rather than reading and re-typing documents.
Do Hajj pilgrims have health insurance?
Saudi Arabia introduced a comprehensive insurance policy for foreign pilgrims in 2022, linked to each visa and provided by local insurers, covering items such as accidents causing death or permanent disability and the return of remains13. Pilgrims may also hold travel or takaful cover in their home country.
How can insurers use Hajj screening data?
With pilgrims' consent, structured screening information can support underwriting and help claims teams assess care received abroad. Pseudonymised data across a whole season can also inform pricing and planning, provided data flows are designed to comply with local data protection law.
Does Jonda Health work with Hajj screening providers and insurers?
Yes. JondaX turns pilgrims' lab reports, discharge summaries and other documents into structured, clinically reviewed data, and Jonda Health Services helps design how records are collected, how decisions are documented and how information is shared with consent. You can reach the team at hello@jonda.health.
Preparing for Hajj 2027?
Book a free 30-minute data readiness conversation and we will look at where your screening or cover depends on records that are hard to gather, read or reuse.
Or get in touch at hello@jonda.health
References
- Republican Public Council for Hajj and Umrah, Uzbekistan. Announcement by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. gov.uz
- General Authority for Statistics, Saudi Arabia. Total number of pilgrims for Hajj 2026 reaches 1,707,301. stats.gov.sa
- RTM Berita. Surat tawaran haji kepada 31,600 bakal jemaah dikeluarkan mulai 21 Sept. berita.rtm.gov.my
- Arab News Pakistan. Pakistan opens second Hajj payment window. arabnews.pk
- Bisnis.com (Kabar24). Pemerintah mulai siapkan penyelenggaraan ibadah haji 2027. bisnis.com
- TIMES Indonesia. Perketat istitha'ah, jemaah haji berisiko tak diberangkatkan mulai 2027. timesindonesia.co.id
- ProPakistani. Saudi Arabia announces new medical rules for Hajj pilgrims. propakistani.pk
- NU Online. Indonesia and Saudi Arabia agree to tighten health standards for Hajj 2026. nu.or.id
- Dhaka Tribune. Ministry: KSA bars pilgrims with incurable diseases from performing Hajj. dhakatribune.com
- Kashmir Life. Haj 2027: pilgrims must submit medical documents by September 15. kashmirlife.net
- NU Online. Kebijakan istithaah kesehatan haji tahun 2026, pemeriksaan dilakukan berlapis. nu.or.id
- MUIS via Ask.gov.sg. What are the medical health requirements? ask.gov.sg
- Arab News (July 2022). Ministry of Hajj and Umrah applies comprehensive health insurance for pilgrims. arabnews.com
- Bernama. Saudi Ministry of Haj and Umrah announces new health requirements for 2026 Haj season. bernama.com
About the author
Suhina Singh is the founder and CEO of Jonda Health. Her career in healthcare spans clinical medicine, pharmaceutical medical affairs and digital transformation across Asian markets, and investing in and building digital health products. Jonda Health makes health data usable through JondaX, its health data API and transformation engine, and through Jonda Health Services. Jonda Health is ISO 27001 certified.
This article is general information, not medical or legal advice. Always follow the requirements issued by your national Hajj authority and the Saudi Ministry of Health, which may change between seasons. Last updated 27 October 2026.
