Prevent Senior calls himself ‘victim of the political system’ and asks the ANS to suspend plans

Prevent Senior asked the ANS (National Supplementary Health Agency) on the last 18th to suspend the sale of 27 of its health plans. In practice, this restricts the entry of new customers — those who have already hired the operator will not be affected by the measure.

In a statement, the company’s chief executive, Fernando Parrillo, stated that the company is “a victim of the political system” and that, therefore, it decided to focus on serving the 550,000 current beneficiaries.

Currently, the service provided by the operator during the Covid-19 pandemic is investigated by the CPI of the São Paulo City Council, in addition to being the target of inquiries opened by the Public Ministry, Civil Police and the Public Ministry of Labor. The company is also being investigated by Cremesp (Regional Council of Medicine of São Paulo).

ANS stated that the suspension of the sale of the plans will take effect 30 days after the request, therefore, from December 18th. Until then, according to the agency, the operator will not be able to deny entry to any new client.

According to ANS, from the period valid for the suspension, the company cannot deny the adhesion of new customers “if there are operators in a special or extraordinary portability process and Prevent Senior is a destination option for the beneficiaries of these operators” .

This means that Prevent will not be able to refuse new customers coming from operators with the same profile if they go bankrupt or whose registration is canceled by the ANS.

The operator will continue to market five health plans, three of which are individually contracted and two are collective.

In a statement, the company stated that it was expected to increase its customer base by 20% next year, but, according to Parrillo, “if we have a new wave of the pandemic, this growth would be greater”.

In the first year of the pandemic, Prevent Senior had a 67% increase in complaints registered by beneficiaries at ANS in the comparison between 2019 and 2020. For the operator, the increase is natural “in times of greater tension and growing demand”.