The government of Chocó failed to guarantee services to the uninsured poor population in 2018 and stopped committing more than $3 billion in public health.
The National Health Superintendency confirmed a fine of close to 72 million pesos imposed on the Government of Chocó for failures in the management of the health service in its territory.
On December 29, 2021, Supersalud had sanctioned this department with 150 current legal monthly minimum wages (smlmv) for not having made the payment in a timely manner of the obligations generated in the health commitments agreed in 2018, for not managing the benefit of health services in a timely, efficient and quality manner to the uninsured poor population (PPNA) and for presenting a low execution of public health expenses that same year.
Faced with this decision, the Governor’s Office filed appeals and reversals at the time, on which in the first instance the Delegate Superintendency for Administrative Investigations dismissed some of the charges and reduced the penalty to 80 smlmv; decision that, in second instance when resolving the appeal, was confirmed by the National Health Superintendent through resolution 2023162000000126-6 of January 16, 2023.
The context of the previous sanction occurs on the occasion of a visit made by Supersalud to the Chocó Governorate between September 16 and 20, 2019 to verify and evaluate compliance with its functions, powers and responsibilities with respect to surveillance. and the control of health against the processes of financing, insurance, public health within its territory; as well as the verification of the actions in development of the Health Action Plan and the corresponding follow-up as ordered by the Constitutional Court and the Ombudsman’s Office. The visit covered the 2018 and 2019 terms.
As a result of that visit, the Delegate Superintendence filed seven charges against the Government of Chocó.
When resolving the appeal, the Superintendency found that the territorial entity incurred in regulatory breaches, due to the fact that the budgetary execution of expenses corresponding to the 2018 term reached 39%, the operating expenses had an execution of 94% and the public health actions of 72%.
After analyzing the evidence and arguments proposed by the Department of Chocó, Supersalud concluded that, despite the fact that the investigated entity had the financial resources available, the level of payments was low, especially for the provision of health services to the Population. Uninsured Poor (PPNA), which in 2018 reached 55.34%.
In what has to do with the health services directed to this population, the Supersalud found that the Government of Chocó did not carry out the necessary steps to guarantee timely, continuous and comprehensive care during the term of 2018, since the contracts to guarantee the low complexity were not subscribed for the entire term of the validity, since they were subscribed in the second half of 2018.
In addition, the Government did not support the contracting of low-complexity health services during 2018 in municipalities such as Quibdó, Atrato, Acandí, Nuquí, Bojayá, Río Quito, Ungía, Carmen del Darién, Riosucio, Bahía Solano, Juradó, Medio San Juan , Canton of San Pablo, Certeguí, Río Oro and Pan-American Union.
Likewise, it was determined that the Government, for the 2018 term, in the public health sub-account, stopped committing resources for more than 3,000 million pesos -equivalent to 27.86%- and generated accounts payable for 2,800 million pesos. , which are equivalent to only 35.49% of the commitments.
The last of the charges was made because the Government did not notify through Sivigila in a timely manner 100% of cases of maternal mortality.
The decision was confirmed in the second instance, so no further appeals can be filed.