BUPA Physiotherapy Tender Process

[skeetaus]

As an outsider, surely the spirit of the competition law was to increase competition and stop people acting in union and therefore artificially creating a fixed price.This is what BUPA are doing. It will be worse when the other insurers join in. It results in far less competition. It seems like a case for getting all health providers together to fund a campaign to change the law. Or at least point out that the law is limiting competition rather than increasing it. Can you get the opthalmologists, the radiologists etc talking about it? If there was a BUPA for barristers it would change tomorrow.

Also who owns BUPA. Share holders? Can they be spoken to by individuals?

[blondie]

Having read the latest posts plus PF's e-alert, I'm inclined to agree - BUPA have not actually re worded the tender document, they have just stated that they will not hold certain things against us if we decide to tender! Yes we can negotiate on price (probably on their terms not ours) but if we sign they will still be dictating how we practice. I don't think much has changed - certainly not enough for us to change our minds about tendering.
If BUPA want Physios to be 'Prefered Providers', they need to realise that we are all individuals & treat us as such.
I think we should all still think very carefully before signing away our independence.

[physiobob]

Also who owns BUPA. Share holders? Can they be spoken to by individuals?

Perhaps you aren't such an outside. BUPA is slowly but surely trying to run the world of health care, carefully and progressively merging and acquiring medical facilities all over the world.

Here's some extract from their wikipedia entry to highlight the real BUPA

Overview

Bupa (originally, the British United Provident Association) was formed in 1947. Initially, Bupa was purely a UK health insurance provider, offering policies to individuals, companies and other organisations. This continues to be the largest business within the company and around half of Britain's top companies are presently Bupa customers.

Over the years it has diversified away from its core health insurance business and is now an internationally established health insurance and care company with services that include health insurance, care homes, health assessments, occupational health services and childcare.

Bupa is a private company limited by guarantee; it has no shareholders, and any profits (after tax) are reinvested in the business.

Operations

The company has its head office in central London, with main contact centres in Staines and Salford Quays. Bupa also has offices in Brighton (Bupa International), Bristol (Bupa Health Assurance), Ashford, Surrey (Information Systems) and Leeds (Bupa Care Services).

Bupa has businesses in Asia, Australia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Thailand. It also owns several healthcare companies overseas including Spain's largest healthcare company, Sanitas, and acquired IHI Danmark (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Amedex (Miami, US) in September 2005. In November 2006, Bupa acquired Clinovia, the UK’s home healthcare specialist, in a move that gave BUPA new opportunities in the expanding out of hospital care market. In December 2007, Bupa purchased DCA Agedcare Group in Australia and New Zealand, making it a leading player in these markets. Also in December 2007, Bupa announced the purchase of Health Dialog, a leading provider of chronic condition management and ‘shared decision making’ services.

During 2008, Bupa acquired the Cromwell Hospital in London to create a flagship hospital in England’s capital, providing healthcare to Bupa members and other private patients, including those living outside the UK, who wish to be treated in London. Approval was given for the merger between Bupa's Australian arm and insurance group MBF, which also includes HBA and Mutual Community. The merger created Australia's largest private healthcare insurer. Bupa International and International Medical Insurers had their launch event to celebrate their collaboration, making International Medical Insurers(IMI) the sole distributor for BUPA plans in Singapore. On 1 December 2008, Clinovia's name was changed to Bupa Home Healthcare Bupa recently announced its entry into the Indian health insurance market through a joint venture with local conglomerate, Max India. The new venture is called Max Bupa Health Insurance Limited.

[physiobob]

We can also see in the 2007 article from the Guardian that BUPA likes to accumulate things and then sell them on for profit. Don't underestimate that this might still be something worth achieving as the NHS becomes privatized. They might well be aiming to be in the box seat to both deliver services and to be able to sell that business once they take control.

BUPA sells hospitals to private equity firm

* Julia Kollewe
* guardian.co.uk, Monday 18 June 2007 14.37 BST
* larger | smaller
* Article history

BUPA has sold its 25 private UK hospitals to the private equity firm Cinven for £1.44bn, to focus on its main health insurance business.

Cinven beat off tough competition from CVC, which also made it through to the final bid round, and other private equity groups including Guy Hands' Terra Firma.

Its healthcare experience gave Cinven the edge over rival bidders. The firm already owns Partnerships in Care, a provider of specialist mental health services which operates 940 beds in 17 facilities around the country. Its previous investments include General Healthcare and Générale de Santé in France.

Britain's traditional private hospital market is dominated by six players: the NHS and five private groups, including BUPA. Of those, two have already been acquired by private equity firms.

General Healthcare, which runs 49 private hospitals in the UK, making it the biggest operator, was sold last year to a consortium led by the South African healthcare group Netcare and the private equity firm Apax. HCA International, which owns six hospitals in London, including the Harley Street Clinic and the Wellington Hospital, was bought by three US private equity firms last July.

The sale price was higher than expected - when the hospitals were put up for sale in early April they were expected to fetch up to £1.25bn.

"I expect some degree of consolidation in the sector beyond where we are," said Graham Kendall, acting general manager at NHS Partners. "We're going through quite a shift at the moment. The government has encouraged independent providers to get into the [healthcare] market."

BUPA, Britain's biggest medical insurance provider, said the sale would not affect its insurance customers, who will have access to the same 230 hospitals as before.

"The separation of our hospitals from the insurance business will allow the two, as separate entities, to fulfill their potential and make a greater contribution to the UK healthcare economy," said chief executive Val Gooding. "We are confident we will continue to enjoy a good relationship with the hospitals group under its new ownership."

BUPA will use the sale proceeds to pay down debt and to invest in the group. Hospitals accounted for just 11% of its business last year, with three-quarters coming from health insurance and the rest from care homes for the elderly. The company controls 40% of the health insurance market in the UK. It is a not-for-profit organisation, which reinvests any surplus into the business.

BUPA announced in early April that it was in talks to sell off its UK hospitals, with Citigroup appointed to handle the deal.

It set up the hospitals in the 1970s to ensure its insurance customers had sufficient access to private healthcare. As the number of private hospitals in the UK has increased, BUPA no longer feels the need to run its own hospitals.

"The two businesses have to be run at a complete arm's length for competition reasons," a spokesman explained. In 2000, BUPA was blocked from buying Community Hospitals on competition grounds. The sale of the hospitals will make it easier for the company to expand further.

It has also ventured overseas, to countries including Spain, Australia, Denmark and the US, where it now generates a third of its revenues.

[Chartered Physiotherapist]

Well done to everyone on this site. I will not be tendering. If Bupa do change the goalposts and redo the whole thing then they will need to listen to us first.