Sanitas's harsh statement on the intervention: 'It was a premeditated, arbitrary, and malicious strategy.'

This Friday, in a statement, the Keralty Group responded to the Constitutional Court's decision to revoke the administrative intervention that the National Health Superintendency had imposed on the EPS since April of last year.

In that sense, according to the international group that controls Sanitas, Colsanitas, and other healthcare-related businesses in the country, what for many should be a day of joy for the restoration of justice is, for them, "a day of mourning."

“After fifteen long months of arbitrary actions, persecution, and silence, what should never have been taken away has been returned to us. But this legal victory does not erase the moral, institutional, financial, and human damage this government has caused, not only to us as an organization, but to millions of users, patients, families, doctors, clinics, and healthcare workers who have suffered firsthand the consequences of a deliberate strategy of destruction. Because this was not a mistake; it was a premeditated, arbitrary, malicious, deliberate, and foreshadowed strategy that the Colombian State executed,” Keralty said in a statement.

According to Keralty, the government "suffocated them financially" by refusing to acknowledge the structural underfunding of the system and the payment of overdue debts. "President Gustavo Petro himself declared it during his campaign and administration: he would end the EPS, one way or another. His ministers repeated it. And they executed it step by step," they emphasized.

The group also claimed they were "persecuted" administratively, with audits, investigations, and "smear campaigns that did not find a single material, ethical, or legal flaw in our governance."

And after that, they were intervened "to dismantle us from within, dismantling EPS Sanitas, destroying part of the model, weakening networks, abandoning patients, and demoralizing our teams. Finally, they let the progressive deterioration do the 'dirty work': breaking down from within what they couldn't discredit from without."

"All of this was done in the name of a supposed transformation of the health system that, in reality, has put the lives of millions of Colombians at risk, unfortunately demonstrating the lack of a solid, valuable alternative design serving the population," they stated.

According to Keralty, today they are taking over a company with financial problems; with deteriorating services, unprecedented levels of complaints and lawsuits; with fragmented networks; with deteriorating, untimely, and disintegrated customer service; and with staff "wounded to the core of their vocation."

Keralty insisted that the underlying problem, which is currently generating the crisis in the sector, is the lack of resources. “Now we need a temporary miracle. The Colombian government, as the sole party responsible for the current critical situation, cannot continue to fail to fulfill its obligation to guarantee the financial sufficiency of the system. Only with the proper allocation of the necessary resources and the concerted contribution of all stakeholders in the system, can we overcome this critical period without the system collapsing,” they emphasized.

Finally, they emphasized that it will not be easy to repair the serious damage and losses caused, but that Sanitas and Keralty will make every effort to address the situation "with dignity, science, compassion, and courage."

"We insist on the necessary reorganization and fulfillment by the Colombian State of its immediate obligations and commitments to address this complex process. In line with the transparency that characterizes us, it is our duty to emphasize that if the Government does not comply with these obligations, we will have no choice but to abandon our purpose and will to move forward," they concluded.

In the case of Nueva EPS and Sanitas, Supersalud's auditors failed to achieve their goal of improving care over the past year. The control measure was extended in April of this year for both entities, on April 2 and 3, marking one year since Supersalud took control. Now, the government will have another 365 days to continue trying. This is a significant figure considering that these insurers are among those with the most members: 11.6 million at Nueva EPS and 5.7 million at Sanitas.

In the case of Sanitas, the figures so far show that, instead of improving, the situation has worsened. For example, in the case of Sanitas, the indicators have been declining in this last year under the Supersalud administration. In 2023, Sanitas received a total of 185,634 complaints, and in 2024, it received 221,565, representing a 19 percent increase in complaints and claims from this health insurance company's users.

In the months prior to the intervention, that is, January, February, and March 2024, Sanitas accumulated 15,071, 15,721, and 14,367 complaints, respectively. A year later, during the Supersalud intervention, the insurer registered 23,495 complaints in January and 20,931 in February 2025. The figures for March of this year are not yet known.

Environment and Health Journalist