Goiânia Launches Tender to Manage Troubled IMAS Health Plan

Quick Summary

The Prefeitura de Goiânia has launched a bidding process to hire a specialized company to manage the Instituto Municipal de Assistência à Saúde dos Servidores (IMAS). The goal is to reorganize the health plan, which suffers from historical financial instability and accumulating debt.

Mayor Sandro Mabel stated that the plan has accumulated a deficit of over R$ 200 million, rendering it unable to pay for medical procedures and exams. The administration emphasized that the city will maintain control over the institute, while the contracted company will provide technical expertise to balance the accounts. The Mayor warned that the restructuring could lead to adjustments in monthly fees for beneficiaries.

Financial Crisis and Debt Accumulation

The Prefeitura de Goiânia has officially opened a tender process to contract a company specialized in health plan management. The primary objective is to reorganize the Instituto Municipal de Assistência à Saúde dos Servidores (IMAS), which faces significant historical financial problems and a growing accumulation of debts.

Mayor Sandro Mabel announced the initiative, acknowledging the necessity to reconfigure the current model. According to the Mayor, the IMAS has accumulated a deficit that prevents the payment of medical procedures, exams, and care to users. The plan serves municipal public servants and their dependents.

The financial burden is attributed to the structure of the plan, where a single server may pay a low premium while having multiple dependents. This dynamic has rendered the plan unsustainable.

Mayor Mabel stated regarding the debt:

"Today a server can pay little, but has several dependents, and this ends up leaving the plan in an unsustainable situation, with more than R$ 200 million in debt," Mabel said.

Role of the Private Contractor

City officials clarified that the tender does not represent a privatization of the IMAS. Instead, the administration is seeking a company with expertise in managing supplementary health systems to address what the Mayor described as "amateurism" in the current administration.

The administrative, financial, and strategic management will remain the responsibility of the municipality. The contracted company is expected to provide technical knowledge to rebalance the accounts and make the plan more sustainable.

The administration plans to hire professionals who have previously handled crisis situations in other health plans, such as Unimed and private operators. The specific goal is to conduct a thorough review of the institute's finances and practices. The expectation is that this intervention will contribute to an improvement in the efficiency of services provided to civil servants.

Potential Impact on Monthly Fees

When questioned about the potential impact on users, Mayor Mabel stated that it is not possible to guarantee that monthly fees will not increase. The new model may require reorganizing costs and promoting adjustments to the tariff structure.

The Mayor explained that the goal is to find the "right tariff," which may result in varying changes for different beneficiaries.

"Some people who pay today may end up paying less, others may pay more, because we need to find the right tariff. There are cases of those who pay little and use a lot, which financially unbalances the plan," the Mayor said.

The definition of new values will be the result of studies by the new management team, which has not yet been hired. The Mayor also noted that this initiative is one of the last attempts to reverse the critical situation of the IMAS, which has faced constant complaints from servers regarding difficulties in accessing medical services due to debts with providers.

"I am not satisfied with the IMAS, as many users are not. We need to reformulate," Mabel affirmed.

Current Status of the Tender

The tender for the selection of the specialized company has been published and is currently in progress. The notice includes defined deadlines and requirements for interested parties.

However, the Prefeitura de Goiânia has not yet informed specific deadlines for the definition of the contractor or for the implementation of changes to the health plan. The process remains open as the city seeks a solution to the institute's long-standing financial issues.