[HIGHLIGHTS] Prepaid and new fees: ten answers to the key doubts of members after the Government's decision

The Government's indication to some of the main private medicine entities to lower the fees to the value which would correspond if since December they had only adjusted for inflation, that is, taking into account the accumulated of January, February, and March) “only” 51.54%. The official decision to roll back the value of the installments to December and add only the inflation of the period up to the present changes the scenario.

Who benefits from the measure, when will it be implemented, and what will happen to the extra money already paid to the prepaid companies, between the questions. The answers are based on exchanges with the national government, with references to some prepaid companies covered by the measure and clarifications from other sources in the sector. They are Galeno, British Hospital, German Hospital, Medifé, Swiss Medical, Omint, and Osde. According to the document, these companies represent 75% of the around 6 million members of prepaid medicine in the country. The answer is that for now, "for now," something that will be clarified in question 3. The Superintendency of Health Services requested a precautionary measure for the "abuse of prices" of some prepaid companies that would have adopted a dominant position in the market. No Government source has shared the protection filed or revealed the names of those 18 companies. The increases in these months were coordinated by a group of companies (the seven mentioned above), which these days circulates as "cartelization." As mentioned above, more could be added to this group if the Justice grants the amparo appeal that targets 18 companies, among which the seven already mentioned most likely appear. The affiliates overpaid everything since the change of Government management to this part; we must wait for the judicial decision. Everything depends on the Federal Justice in Civil and Commercial Matters No. 9. It is there where, as can be found, the case is processed. The problem is that there are not seven (like those detailed by Commerce) but no less than 18 prepaid medicine companies.