Until 2023, Coomeva Prepaid Medicine will be in an expansion plan throughout the country, to also give greater coverage and access to its 380,000 current users. The idea is that in 2022, services in Colombia will be consolidated and progress will be made in the construction and inauguration of its health model.
(Supersalud ordered the forced intervention of EPS Coomeva).
According to Marco Aurelio Montes Martínez, general manager of Coomeva Prepaid Medicine, the new medical centers will be invested more than $ 22,000 million pesos in 6,083 square meters of construction or remodeling and thus first and second level care will be offered.
What are the projects with which you start 2022?
There are several because they are very focused on the growth strategy in the various formats that we have of medical centers, the objective is to be able to reach the different cities to generate differentials in the service and in the medical care model for health care .
We will have scheduled care services, we will be focused on a comprehensive and innovative model, which is that of medical assistance, in addition to the structural and physical formats, the most important thing is the service and risk management model and all of medical care that the centers have and this with the main objective of being able to provide a complete service of care, prevention and also start in several cities with the concept of self-care and we will focus on this in 2022.
The closing of the entire year of work is a great expansion to be in four main cities of the country such as Bogotá, Medellín, Cali and Barranquilla and we will also be in intermediate cities such as Cartagena where we open the medical center at the end of 2021; Pereira, Tuluá, Armenia and Bucaramanga.
Is the opening of Cartagena the first of the slopes?
That’s how it is. The first project inaugurated within this plan is the Express Medical Center in Cartagena, Coomeva’s first Prepaid Medicine center in the department of Bolívar, which came into operation at the end of November and the beginning of December.
The new medical center has the services of general medicine, specialized medical consultation, clinical laboratory, priority consultation and the Maternity With You Program. The Bogotá and Medellín centers have already started construction to enter into operation by the second quarter of 2022. They will be followed by Cali, Barranquilla and Bucaramanga, which are currently in the planning phase.
How many new jobs will be creating with this investment?
We are promoting economic activation not only in the health sector, but also in the different sectors involved to carry out its expansion plan, we estimate employment opportunities that are added to the 1,400 direct and indirect jobs currently generated by Coomeva Medicina Prepaid.
Where does change come from and arise?
It is part of a process to strengthen the presence we have in the population of 380,000 current users and is the oldest prepaid medicine company in the country and this has made us work on the client as our service center with older users who are loyal and This is also part of our difference from the competition because they have been our clients since 1973 and are in force with us.
We have coverage for people of 108 years of age and this has invited us to work in very comprehensive services so that patients of different ages have the best experience despite the health difficulties that arise and this leads us to have diversity in the centers such as comfort, medical management, the possibility of doing everything in one place so that the user does not have to go to another place and that it does not take more than 40 minutes to wait and with this also decongest the same system and be able to provide a better attention.
What has changed and how has prepaid medicine become more accessible to Colombians?
Prepaid medicines have the reputation of not being cheap due to the costs they entail, the differential services also show the increase, but we have made a break in that part of the market, because, for example, in 2020 we created five new products for the market, to enable more people to access prepaid medicine and complement their health services and EPS, in addition to offering them first-rate care.
What we did was create plans, endorsed by the Superintendency of Health and we already have several in the market from $ 60,000 and that was not seen for a while but it is presented because following research we understood that there is a very young population that wants an advantage but not all, that there are other people who require specialists immediately, that new parents are looking for a good health plan before delivery, that there are more interesting coverage for specific workers, also interests in outpatient or dental plans in which we have been growing to give a part of our portfolio that is interesting and that is tailored to the individual’s needs and this will undoubtedly improve access.
How was the investment in technology?
During 2020, close to $ 18,000 million was invested in technology to improve the technological platform and processes to achieve a balance between face-to-face and digital attention. WhatsApp Business was consolidated as a primary tool that made it possible to attend to 105,500 requests in the first semester of 2021. A Virtual Medical Center for Teleconsultation was also implemented, which processed 5,300 inquiries and the renewal of the Contact Center service model.
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