EPS Sanitas would be intervened by Supersalud, congressmen warn

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The Superintendence of Health would have notified this Tuesday, April 2, of the intervention of the EPS Sanitas, one of the largest in the country with more than 5.5 million users. This, according to some congressmen.

Apparently, the reasons behind the intervention are explained by a failure of the EPS, with the technical reserves and with the equity. Until now it is known that the intervention would not be to liquidate the entity, but to administer it. This is an intervention to establish the solvency of the EPS and the quality of the service they provide to their members.

This was initially warned by congressmen Andrés Forero and Miguel Uribe of the Democratic Center. So far, the Health Superintendency has not made an official statement.

“Given the frustration of the national government over the imminent collapse of the health reform, it is taking retaliation and intervening in an arbitrary and unjustified manner to EPS Sanitas. We must remind the country that the EPS that have already been intervened by this government, instead of improving after the intervention, unfortunately they have seen how their indicators deteriorate and how their care worsens. Those who have paid the consequences have been the patients and members,” said Forero.

Technical reserves are the most important component of an EPS’s liabilities.

There is a financial qualification requirement for the EPS called the reserve investment regime, which must be met to guarantee permanence in the System. The calculation has been carried out since 2015 in accordance with the provisions of Decree 2702 of 2014. It was initially stipulated that the technical reserves established should be reserved as 100% assets to meet the conditions of quality, liquidity and concentration of investments.

As explained by Mario Cruz, technical vice president of Acemi (a union that brings together the main EPS of the contributory regime) on other occasions, the current defect in the reserves is a consequence of the chronic definancing problems of the System that worsened during the years 2022 and 2023.

“Insufficient premiums translate into insufficient reserves and investments. Compliance with the regulatory requirement becomes impossible. First, it decapitalizes the companies and then, to guarantee growing spending, savings are made at a lower rate than required,” he said.

And he added: “It is not that the EPS keep the resources or divert them as has been intended: they have simply not been able to save the reserves at the expected rate and in certain cases they have had to resort to these resources to guarantee the provision.”