Juan Carlos Reinales was recorded asking for payments to hospitals – Investigative Unit

Someone recorded a 16-minute conversation between the representative to the Liberal Chamber Juan Carlos Reinales and the manager of the EPS Asmet Salud, Gustavo Aguilar, in a cafe outside the El Dorado airport.

In the talk, on November 6, Reinales is heard talking with Aguilar about making commitments, contracts with hospitals and even the collection of ‘a small purse’.

Although the congressman is clear that it is part of his role, in defense of the public network, The EPS classifies them as pressures and has just filed a complaint with the Supreme Court.

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EL TIEMPO put the audio to the liberal representative by telephone, to find out who recorded it, why and if his requests to the EPS are part of his exercise of political control.

In the recording, after referring to the debates that the Seventh Commission has advanced to the Superintendent of Health, Fabio Aristizábal, about the impacts of the liquidation of an EPS, the representative asks that Asmet Salud include in the so-called ‘cancer route ‘to public hospitals.

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And then there is talk of hiring in clinical and hospital issues for the San Jorge and Dos Quebradas hospitals, so that the billing would increase to 3,000 million pesos.

“I have two requests, one you already made, a commitment to them, I want you to ratify it for me and for us to ratify it (…)”, The congressman is heard saying, who admitted to EL TIEMPO that this is his voice and that the meeting with Aguilar did take place.

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However, the representative says that the audio was edited and is biased at the point where it talks about the collection of a portfolio and some contracts for public hospitals.

‘I’m going to report the case’

The congressman refers to this part, which appears transcribed in the complaint that reached EL TIEMPO: “Come on, my brother, there is another little thing. Would you pay me a purse to some hospitals that I have there? I pass the list to him (…) No, I pass the list to him and better staff, to avoid misunderstandings and bad ‘guevonadas’ ”.

And it adds: “Which is my revenue there? The Commission. Of course that is my income and that is what I live on, so I do the homework, I do the management, I screw here and I screw there, I ‘marique’ there.

“They want to hurt me because I am carving, being critical on the subject of health. But I have no idea who recorded me. My role and my task is to ensure the well-being of the hospital network and that is what I have done all this time. It is a non-personal institutional task, as you confirmed after speaking with department officials. It is a common front for these EPS to pay the hospital network, “the congressman explained to EL TIEMPO.

Indeed, Risaralda authorities, including the Secretary of Health, assure that the congressman’s flag has been to ask the EPS to pay the debts of the public network.

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“His work has been impeccable, that is his flag, his task, that they pay the public network. It is an issue in which he has accompanied us,” said the departmental health secretary. And he confirmed that they had already spoken with Asmet Salud about including hospitals in the ‘cancer route’, today in the hands of private institutions.

The Commission’

For this reason, Reinales assures that someone wants to harm him: “If they recorded me, it is because they want to hurt me and what they did was manipulate that conversation. In that part where the commission is talked about, it is cut off, arranged, in such a way that it gives that feeling that I am pursuing personal gains.

He also said that he will immediately request an investigation into the veracity and authenticity of the audio that he described as “absolutely biased and malicious.”

And, after warning that he will institute a defamation complaint, he explained that when he uses the word commission, he has always referred to the Seventh Health Commission: “When I speak of the commission in my interviews and dialogues, I mean the commission to which I belong and to which corresponds the political control of health.”

EPS reported

EL TIEMPO contacted the manager of Asmet Salud, also an interlocutor of the congressman, Gustavo Aguilar.

He began by pointing out that, in February, Reinales had already summoned that EPS for debate, so that it could catch up with the debts with public hospitals in Risaralda and that later it looked for him to talk about ‘the route of cancer’, the collection of a portfolio and contracts with the San Jorge and the Dos Quebradas hospital.

“He summoned me. He told me that he wanted to talk to me about various issues, one of them related to the San Jorge hospital issue, and he presented me with a recommendation in front of some providers that he was going to ask me how we could help him with hiring issues and payments, “the EPS manager told EL TIEMPO

According to Aguilar, the contract was for two hospitals: “So that we could modify an issue of a contract that we have with the San Rafael Hospital, which is private, and we could give the San Jorge and Dos Quebradas again”.

Aguilar confirms that the representative also told him that he was going to recommend some lenders that he had to collect a portfolio.

“He told me that if I could collaborate with the payments to some providers known to him. He told me that he represented the region and that he knew the providers (…) He gave me to understand that they helped him in political matters , that as a parliamentarian they were people who were interested in helping, “says Aguilar.

According to the manager of EPS Asmet Salud, the congressman did not speak to him directly about a commission (as it appears in the transcript), but he said that there was an interest on contracts and charges.

For this reason, Aguilar says, he gave power to attorney Jaime Lombana to investigate alleged pressures and the crime of concussion.

“Then he sent me WhatsApp messages asking me what happened to the contracts and I have reiterated that a technical evaluation should be done, as I told him that day. I noticed him a bit upset because he thought we were going to do what he was doing. posing, “Aguilar said.

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