Colombian insurance companies (EPS) and departments owe hospitals over $2 billion, said the country’s health union Thursday.
“At the root of the crisis, the EPS have not repaid in three months and the debt to the hospitals has become 3.7 trillion pesos [$2 billion],” the president of the national health union Yezid Camacho told Caracol Radio.
The union made its declaration while showing their support for workers striking in an Ibague hospital, which reportedly has not paid its employees for over four months.
The health union reported that the Federico Lleras hospital in the capital of the Tolima department is owed $47 million by the insurance companies.
Hospital employees reported to RCN Radio that only emergencies and patients that were already hospitalized in Frederico Lleras are being attended to.
Directors of EPS (private insurance companies in charge of government funds directed toward health care for the Colombian public) have come under fire after it was revealed that they reportedly stole over $2.5 billion in public health care funds.
