The crisis of the hospitals in Antioquia, caused by the non-payment of the EPS, is more suffocating every day. The noose around the neck tightened due to the liquidations of Medimás and Coomeva, which increased the debt to $498,000 million with 17 hospitals in the department. That is why the directors of the entities made a call for help so that the resources be delivered to them and thus not affect everyone who requires a medical service.
Of Medimás and Coomeva, the last two liquidated, the unpaid resources amount to $218,000 million.
Mauricio Tamayo, corporate president of Hospital San Vicente Fundación, explained that of this money, Ch$60,000 million correspond to debts with Medimás, and Ch$158,000 million belong to Coomeva: “If one compares the figures of December 31 of last year and January 31 of this year, it rose by $14,000 million. It is a figure that has us in very great complications to the clinics and hospitals to fulfill the obligations and to be able to continue operating as effectively our community needs it”.
The resources not delivered by the EPS to the healthcare centers represent 25% of the portfolio of these healthcare centers, which have 80% of the department’s hospital beds and which operate in the metropolitan area and Eastern Antioquia.
“With the liquidation effects, the resources to pay the debts for the care provided are not guaranteed. We do not ask for anything other than that they pay us for the care of the patients that we have treated with absolute responsibility,” said Andrés Trujillo, general director of the CES Clinic.
The complaint was made by the association made up of 17 clinics and hospitals in Medellín, Bello, Envigado, Rionegro and La Cejawho see the monies owed by these two EPSs lost.
One of the examples is the case of the Hospital San Vicente Fundación, which of the $291,000 million in portfolio receivable, $75,600 million correspond to debts with the settled EPS. In the case of the CES Clinic, the amount amounts to $9,000 million and for the Pablo Tobón Uribe Hospital it is $60,000 million.
The impact on the user
For the moment, the promise of the directors of the clinics and hospitals is to make every effort to continue providing services, basic and specialized, to users, while waiting for the money to be able to meet the payroll of employees and purchase supplies and medicines.
“To be sustainable over time, we need the resources, because we have to pay fortnightly wages, supplies, medicines, taxes and public services. But this has a limit and, if this continues, the day will come when the credits will exceed the capacity to continue operating,” added Trujillo.
But for now, with a lot of effort, the directors of these clinics have taken resources from where they can to comply with both patients and workers, who are ensured that in these 17 hospitals they have their fortnights a day.
The liquidation process of Medimás will begin today, while that of Coomeva started last month. The fear of the hospitals happens because in the cases that occurred with SaludCoop and CaféSalud, millions of pesos were lost following they were liquidated by the Health Superintendence.
The general director of the CES Clinic explained: “In these liquidation processes there will not be enough assets to pay the debts. Unquestionably, in addition, we have the background of other processes such as SaludCoop and Café Salud, where the same thing happened and those who lose the money are the clinics and hospitals”.
Luis Alberto Martínez, director of the Association of Social Enterprises of the State of Antioquia (Aesa), pointed out that the new measures of the National Government have given rise to EPS being liquidated and founded without resources, which has led to a growing debt that weakens hospitals, a situation that ends up affecting users when requesting any medical attention.
This is the last call made by hospitals in the midst of a crisis that has lasted eight years. However, they assured that it is an urgent call before having to tell the user: We can’t answer it because there’s nothing to do with it!
2,5
Millions of users are affected by the liquidation of these two EPSs.
500
days of services have not been paid to the hospitals by the liquidated EPS.
