Villavicencio's Primavera Clinic suspended emergency services due to a debt of more than $22 billion from Nueva EPS: 1,200 patients will be left without care.

The Primavera Clinic in Villavicencio announced that it has suspended its emergency services since August 8 due to a 22.945 billion peso debt owed to the hospital by Nueva EPS (a government intervention).

In a statement, the hospital noted that the irregularities in payments have affected its operational capacity and, for example, have hindered the "acquisition of supplies, medications, and the maintenance of medical personnel."

"This situation openly contradicts the national government's rhetoric, which has expressed its intention to strengthen the provider network and guarantee timely access to healthcare ," the clinic details in the statement.

And he adds: "We are at imminent risk of shutting down essential services. Nueva EPS's repeated failures not only affect our financial viability, but also directly compromise users' right to health."

The closure of the emergency department will affect 1,200 patients per month, according to the clinic, which added that it has formally notified Nueva EPS, the Health Superintendency, and the Attorney General's Office.

"This is not an isolated case: it reflects a structural problem that currently impacts hundreds of healthcare institutions across the country and demands immediate measures to protect the system and the millions of Colombians who depend on it ," the statement said.

Meanwhile, President Gustavo Petro reacted to the hospital's announcement through his X account.

"The health crisis is not worsening. The results we will present publicly, with mortality and morbidity rates, up to week 30 of 2022 and week 30 of 2025, show a great leap forward in the health data for Colombians. The clinic discussed here loaned its owners the same amount of money owed by the new EPS," he wrote.

On July 31, the National Health Superintendency ordered the immediate suspension of the direct transfer of public funds from the Administrator of Resources of the General Social Security System in Health (Adres) to providers in the Nueva EPS network, one of the entities with the largest number of members in the country. Basically, the payments that Adres made directly to clinics, hospitals, and other providers that offer their services to Nueva EPS users , as requested by the Government, will now require new verification before they can be processed.

The precautionary measure is due to what the regulatory agency described as a "structural backlog" in the processing of medical bills by the EPS, which has reached a cumulative total of $11.56 billion, represented by more than 15 million unaudited and unreconciled invoices. It is important to note that for more than a year, Nueva EPS, which enrolls more than 11 million users in the country, has been under the control of the Supersalud (Health Superintendency), which has failed to improve its financial statements or its service, as shown by the increase in PQRS (Public Health Insurance Claims).

From now on, each payment request from Nueva EPS must be evaluated and certified by the comptroller appointed within the framework of the mandatory administrative intervention that has been in effect since April 2024. The comptroller must verify not only the documentation and legality of the requested payments, but also the equitable distribution of resources, the absence of concentrations among certain providers, and the correct prioritization according to the legal order of payments.

For former Health Minister Augusto Galán, the measure is "strange and desperate" and could end up deepening the crisis already facing the Colombian health system. "It's very strange that an intervenor is appointed a comptroller," Galán stated, questioning the establishment of controls following the forced intervention already imposed on Nueva EPS, rather than applying them as part of prior oversight. "Here they are, it's like they're giving back," he warned, suggesting that the decision reflects the lack of capacity to stabilize the entity, even under direct state supervision.

In his analysis, the former minister considered this decision to be more of an attempt to curb spending under the guise of "illegality or abuse," but he noted that what we are witnessing is a structural crisis affecting the entire system: "Providers are overwhelmed (...) and Nueva EPS has been unable to solve its problems or respond adequately to patients," he stated. Galán emphasized that this is reflected in the sustained growth in petitions, complaints, claims, and legal actions, especially against the intervened EPSs. "It's all a systemic problem," he concluded.