Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal investigation to find out if intermediaries siphoned off funds meant for healthcare.
A team of elite prosecutors will investigate if the healthcare intermediaries’ (EPS’s) astronomic debt with hospitals is due to corruption or mismanagement.
The Comptroller General’s Office said in February that the vast majority of EPS’s lacked the funds to operate legally.
The comptroller report additionally said that the private companies that mediate between patients and healthcare providers had accumulated a $2.4 billion (COP9 trillion) debt with hospitals and other providers.
80% of Colombia’s healthcare intermediaries lack legally required funds
In an attempt to prevent a collapse of the healthcare system, the sector’s Superintendent assumed control over two of the troubled EPS’s last week and announced more interventions.
Prosecutor General Luz Adriana Camargo ordered the creation of an investigations team made up with prosecutors from the Financial Crimes, Organized Crime and Territorial Security units.
This joint investigations team will investigate whether the financial woes revealed by the Comptroller General’s Office are due to corrupt or otherwise criminal behavior by the EPS’s.
The criminal investigation comes days after a major healthcare reform proposed by the government of President Gustavo Petro sunk in Congress.
Colombia’s congress sinks Petro’s flagship healthcare reform
In a response to this defeat, the president warned about a possible collapse of the healthcare system.
More than 100 EPS’s have gone bankrupts since the introduction of private intermediaries in Colombia’s public healthcare system in the 1990’s.
These bankruptcies often left healthcare providers with massive losses and in some cases led to major scandals.
The biggest of these scandals revealed in 2011 that Colombia’s largest healthcare intermediary, SaludCoop, had embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars.
Of the 26 EPS’s that are currently operating in Colombia, only five have the legally required financial resources to do so, according to the Comptroller General’s Office.
