The Keralty group, of which EPS is a member, filed a request for international arbitration at the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) for its intervention.
In early April 2024, the then Superintendent of Health, Luis Carlos Leal, shook the health world in Colombia by deciding to intervene in EPS Sanitas, with more than five million users. His decision caused great controversy, as while some celebrated it, others regretted the measure, calling it an abuse.
Since then, a dispute has started between Keralty, owner of EPS Sanitas, and the Colombian State. The first step of the multinational was to appeal to the Prosecutor's Office, where it accused Leal of prevarication. Now, another chapter has just opened: a process has begun on the international stage.
As revealed by the newspaper El Tiempo, the Keralty Group filed a request for international arbitration at the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), seeking compensation of at least US$1.2 billion.
"Since all efforts made by the shareholders of the Keralty group were unsuccessful, the shareholders of the Keralty group were forced to resort to the corresponding international bodies in search of justice and compensation for the damages caused by the Colombian State," the shareholders said in a statement.
The reasons that led the group to make that decision, they explain in the document, have to do, basically, with the intervention that Supersalud made a year ago and with the “failure” of the Colombian State to guarantee the financial sufficiency of the health system that, as we have already reported in El Espectador, is not going through a good moment. In the eyes of several experts, it could get worse with the increase of the UPC for 2025 (of 5.3%) that the Ministry of Health made.
These two situations “have worsened both the company's financial situation and the provision of services to its members. These measures constitute arbitrary, discriminatory and unfair treatment, which has led to the destruction of the economic value of EPS Sanitas, to the detriment of its shareholders, collaborators, and Colombian society,” the shareholders emphasize.
According to the statement, before seeking international arbitration, Keralty sought an “amicable resolution” with the Colombian State, but “all efforts were unsuccessful.”
For now, the dispute will remain in the ICSID, where the New York-based firm Debevoise & Plimpton will represent Keralty, and the State Legal Agency will defend Colombia.
If Keralty emerges victorious from this process, according to its statement, it will allocate “the total compensation obtained in international instances to repair the serious damage caused by the Colombian State to the health system, by strengthening EPS Sanitas with said resources.”
EPS Sanitas is still under intervention. In fact, in mid-November 2024, the new Superintendent of Health, Giovanny Rubiano, changed the intervening agent. Today, that process is headed by Kemer Ramírez Cárdenas.
