There are three foreign companies, which have been changing owners, the owners of the three largest prepaid medicine companies in Colombia: Colsanitas, Colmédica and Coomeva. This service is estimated to be paid monthly by 1.6 million people, it is a voluntary health plan that is purchased in addition to the EPS. Its monthly fees vary according to the benefits it offers, and for which affiliates are willing to pay on average from $220,000 to $1,000,000 per month depending on variables such as age, there is the optimization of waiting times to access to health services, direct access to specialists, coverage for high-cost illnesses, home medical consultation, access to exclusive medical centers and hospitalization in a single room.
In the health reform proposed by the Petro government, the future of prepaid medicines is uncertain, it is most likely that they will rise in price, since there would be no coordination between these plans and the public health system as is currently the case. .
The Spaniards from Grupo Sanitas were among the first to land in the Colombian health system, in 1980 they entered offering prepaid medical services with Colsanitas, and in 1994 coverage within the system was completed with EPS Sanitas.
Joseba Grajales Jiménez ranks 266 among the richest in Spain with a net worth of €220 million
At the end of the 1980s, the Spanish Group passed into the hands of the British multinational BUPA (British United Provident Association), but a few years ago, in 2018, as a result of its international expansion process, the Organization Sanitas Internacional (OSI) became became independent from the parent company Sanitas in Spain, becoming Keralty.
In Colombia, in addition to Colsanitas and EPS Sanitas, Keralty owns the Reina Sofía Clinic, the Colombia University Clinic, the Santa María del Lago Children’s Clinic and the Chía Clinic, as well as emergency centers and medical service centers; in Cali the Sebastián de Belálcazar Clinic, in Barranquilla the Iberoamérica Clinic and Medellín several medical centers. Additionally, from the Sanitas University Foundation where medicine and nursing programs are offered, among others.
The main shareholder and CEO of Keralty, is the Spanish from the Basque country, Joseba Grajales Jiménez, who made his fortune with a motor company now owned by Siemens, has a net worth of €220 million, and is one of the one one of the most important health entrepreneurs in Latin America where Colombia is its main market, but it also operates in Venezuela, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Brazil (under the name of Versania), the United States and the Philippines. The CEO of Keralty Colombia since January 2023 is Sergio González Guzmán, who comes from being the president of ETB.
Richard T Burke owns an estimated fortune of USD 875 million, 76.25% of his shares in UnitedHealth Group
Salud Colmena was created by the Grupo Social Foundation in 1990 as one of the first prepaid medicine companies in the country and included different health plans identified with types of wood and precious stones. The new century began with the majority acquisition by the Chilean Banmedica, and following a spin-off process with the mandatory health plan, the prepaid medicine plans were renamed Colmena Salud EPS, and later in 2004 it would take its current name Colmédica, which comes from the merger between Colmédica and Banmédica.
In its expansion process, it has included the acquisition of Humana Golden Cross dedicated to the commercialization of prepaid medicine plans and Humana Occupational Health, the inauguration of Medical Centers in several cities of the country, dental Centers and Specialized Diagnostic Centers among others.
In 2018, the North American UnitedHealth Group bought Banmédica Companies and with it Colmédica Medicina Prepagada, the EPS Aliansalud, control of the El Country Clinic and the Colina Clinic in Bogotá and the Portoazul Clinic in Barranquilla.
UnitedHealth was founded in January 1997 in Minnesota by Richard T. Burke, who retains the largest individual shareholding and who retired from the board of directors in June of last year. A health giant, which as a group includes UnitedHealthcare and Optum, is the fifth largest public company in the United States and one of the most profitable health insurance companies, last year its profits grew by 13%, reaching USD 324.200 million. Its executive director is the Englishman Sir Andrew Philip Witty.
Ernie Sadau from Christus Health with Alfredo Arana from Grupo Coomeva signed an alliance following 3 years of negotiations
Coomeva, the cooperative of doctors founded sixty years ago in Cali, Valle del Cauca, ended in January 2016 in the hands of the North American Christus Health controlled by Ernie Sadau, and with it its operations of Coomeva EPS, the Farallones Clinic and Palma Real. , both in Cali, and a minority stake in Coomeva Prepagada. The alliance operates through Christus Sinergia Salud, whose executive president is Dr. Alfredo Arana Velasco.
In January 2022, the Superintendence of Health, following four and a half years of special surveillance on it, ordered the liquidation of the EPS due to its impossibility to improve the financial situation and the non-guarantee to its affiliates in access to healthcare services. health. Coomeva Prepaid Medicine as an autonomous and independent company was not affected, and at the end of 2021 it made an investment of $22,000 million to build 12 of its own medical centers in different municipalities for greater peace of mind for its affiliates and users. In Latin America it operates in Mexico, Chile and Colombia.
Christus Health, founded in 1999, is one of the top 10 private Catholic health institutions in the United States, founded in the late 19th century by charity nuns in Texas. Three religious congregations, the Sisters of the Incarnate Word Sisters of Charity in Houston and San Antonio, and the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth are behind Christus Health, a nonprofit organization with more than 600 facilities including hospitals. community centers, emergency centers, health insurance companies, and medical clinics. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas where its president/CEO is Ernie W. Sadau directs more than 45,000 employees.
With the exception of Colsanitas, which was born from the beginning with Spanish capital in 1980, the other two companies Colmédica and Coomeva were created by Colombian doctors. The first was born as Salud Colmena of the Social Foundation and grew as Humana, around doctors from the Clínica del Country, and Coomeva was a pioneering effort whose start was a cooperative of doctors from Valle del Cauca, from which its name comes. Their origin and purpose with which they were born are already part of the past.
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