The controversy surrounding the increases in prepaid charges adds a new chapter: the Government made official this Wednesday the decision that companies
retrograde the installments to the December amounts
and recalculate their value
adjusting it for inflation
(CPI). The official sights were placed judicially on 16 pregagas and on Galeno, the British Hospital, the German Hospital, Medifé, Swiss Medical, Omint and the Organization of Direct Business Services (OSDE). This last prepaid - as is the case of the Italian Hospital - faces a
collective protection
due to the increases in fees
since the beginning of the year and now the question that arises is what will happen with the joint action against this resolution.
“Both the Italian protection and the OSDE protection should continue to be processed normally for the moment. Both protections closed the adherents, that is, new members cannot be included. What could potentially happen with the OSDE, unlike the Italian one, is that the action
is declared abstract
by the Federal Chamber of Paraná in relation to future quotas, because that is what this resolution regulates, but not all the protection . The protection has two pillars: the re-invoicing of the fees, but what the protectionists have also requested are
refunds of what was overpaid
,”
lawyers specializing in the subject explain to
Clarín .
The Government's decision was made known through spokesperson Manuel Adorni, who stated that “by order of the Ministry of Economy, a group of private medicine companies, which represents almost 75% of the members, will roll back the value of their dues to December. 2023, adjusted by CPI from there.” The spokesperson explained that companies must apply the CPI index at most for
the next six months
.
Given this, it still remains to be seen if the prepaid companies can initiate an injunction against the new resolution. According to the specialists, they could argue a
violation of acquired rights
, since they were first authorized to control their prices and this provision would mean changing it: “This could be dealt with in the Supreme Court, because one party or another ends up appealing and going to the last instance".
What is not clear with this administrative resolution is what will happen to
what has already been billed above inflation
by some private health companies during these previous months.
“What is going to remain there, which will surely have to continue or new actions will be presented, is the way in which the affiliates
will have to return the money
or they will be reimbursed for what they paid from January to December. date in future installments. I think that when it is clear how the reimbursement will be attributed to the affiliates,
there will be no more protections
,” they point out from the Legal Study consulted.
As
Clarín
recently explained, OSDE members have been fighting for months under a collective action that received a ruling from the Federal Court of Concepción of Uruguay 2 in favor of the
precautionary measure
for those plaintiffs, establishing that they had to go back to the previous system to decree 70/23, that is, collect fees at the December value.
“The members presented some notes as if to say that from this precautionary measure, and from the moment they are notified of the precautionary measure, they should re-invoice. However, to date,
in no case of the adherents
that we have in Concepción del Uruguay, OSDE complied with the sentence. The judge never issued a resolution when we lawyers reported the non-compliance. Now, this administrative resolution applies to all OSDE affiliates, whether or not they have filed an amparo,” they detail in this regard.
The case of the Italian Hospital is not the same, a prepaid plan that is not among those mentioned in the Government statement: “They continue with the protection, and the members who have not done so will have to go for individual protection. They are more unprotected. This resolution benefits some members, not all. El Italiano, Accord Salud, are three or four that are not contemplated. It would be considered that these prepaid companies can continue with their increases as they have been doing. And in the case of the Italian Hospital there were certain adherents who have increased it
by close to 150%
.”
They add that the update should have been made taking into account
the increase in retirement assets
. Because for the retiree who receives the minimum salary - who, in addition, is the one who makes the most requests for protection, both individually and collectively -
it is impossible to pay the fee
if he does not have a family member to do it for him.
“There are two individual injunction rulings against Medicus and Swiss Medical that were very beneficial in this regard. Commercial Court No. 8 adjusted the contributions to the increase in retirement benefits. “This protects the member, the retiree, against increases that they could not afford in any way,” they conclude.
P.S.