If I have EPS Health Insurance, which doctors can I go to?

Summary: Expats with EPS explained that your EPS provider assigns you to an IPS, which stands for Instituciones Prestadoras de Servicios de Salud. An Instituciones Prestadoras de Servicios de Salud is a health center.

Expats with EPS explained that your EPS provider assigns you to an IPS, which stands for Instituciones Prestadoras de Servicios de Salud. An Instituciones Prestadoras de Servicios de Salud is a health center. "Please look around in the city you decide to settle, with the EPS system, you will need to go to their doctors and if they (insurance) have few offices, you will have issues. Plus, once you get hooked with one company, it is all most impossible to change to another company," warned one expat in Colombia.

One expat explained how he switched his IPS, "While I did not visit 'Central' (the assigned IPS), I was told it is housed in a large former house. Instead, I visited the IPS at Las Molinos in Belen - nice place, air conditioned. You make an appointment online, go to a machine and enter your cedula and it spits out a ticket. You take that to the counter and they give you your consultation room and name that is displayed on screens throughout the waiting room. When your name comes up you go and see the doctor. I went online and changed my IPS from central to Los Molinos and it takes effect the first business day of the next month."

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About the Author

Betsy Burlingame is the Founder and President of Expat Exchange and is one of the Founders of Digital Nomad Exchange. She launched Expat Exchange in 1997 as her Master's thesis project at NYU. Prior to Expat Exchange, Betsy worked at AT&T in International and Mass Market Marketing. She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a BA in International Business and German.