Colsubsidio will continue delivering medications to Nueva EPS users after a new payment agreement

Colsubsidio Health reported this Friday that the dispensing of medications to members of Nueva EPS will continue as normal throughout the country, after reaching a new payment agreement with the intervened entity.

The announcement came after it was revealed that the pharmacy chain was considering suspending the delivery of treatments to patients with high-cost illnesses due to payment delays from Nueva EPS (the health insurance provider). Among the affected diagnoses were cancer, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, epilepsy, HIV, chronic kidney disease, transplants, and heart failure, among others.

According to a statement released by the organization, “following today’s meeting with the administrator of Nueva EPS, medication deliveries continue as normal at all dispensing locations nationwide, after a new payment agreement was established.” Colsubsidio Health added that it trusts Nueva EPS “will honor the established agreements, for the benefit of its users.”

Had the measure been applied, the suspension would have begun in departments such as Boyacá, Caquetá, Casanare, Huila, Meta, Quindío, Tolima and Valle del Cauca, and then extended to Antioquia, Bogotá and Cundinamarca.

This is not the first agreement of its kind between the two entities. In January of this year, Colsubsidio and Nueva EPS also reached a payment agreement that guaranteed the delivery of medications to approximately 1.6 million members in eleven departments.

On that occasion, the then-intervening agent of Nueva EPS, Bernardo Camacho Rodríguez, assured that the objective was "to ensure that members receive their medications without setbacks," while the manager of medicines at Colsubsidio, Sergio Andrés Ramírez, stressed the need to "regulate the flow of resources" to maintain the sustainability of the service.

The new agreement comes amid a deep financial crisis at Nueva EPS, the country's largest health insurer, which has been taken over by the national government. The company has accumulated a debt of nearly 7 trillion pesos with clinics and hospitals, leading several of them to suspend or terminate their service contracts.

Among the most recent cases are the San José Hospital and the Shaio Clinic, which announced the termination of their contracts with the EPS (Health Promoting Entity) due to repeated payment defaults. Shaio alone reports a debt exceeding 95 billion pesos, with arrears of more than 360 days.

According to the Colombian Association of Hospitals and Clinics (ACHC), the EPSs intervened by the Government concentrate more than half of the total debt of the system, which amounts to 24 trillion pesos, and Nueva EPS is the most critical case: between December 2024 and June 2025 its debt increased by 33.7%, going from 5 to 6.69 trillion pesos.

Adding to this situation is a recent report from the Comptroller General of the Republic, which warned about irregularities in the administrative and financial management of the EPS, including advances pending legalization for 15.3 trillion pesos, absence of certified financial statements and findings of non-compliance with the legal framework for health contracting.

For now, the agreement reached between Colsubsidio and Nueva EPS provides some relief to thousands of patients who depend on medication deliveries to continue their treatments. However, the sustainability of this measure will depend on the effective fulfillment of payment commitments, in a context where the healthcare system crisis continues to deepen.

“We trust that Nueva EPS will comply with the established agreements, for the benefit of the users,” concluded the statement from Salud Colsubsidio.

Environment and Health Journalist