Bupa

In 1982, Bupa International was launched to provide worldwide medical cover to people working outside their home country. This business is now branded as Bupa Global.

In 1989, Bupa acquired 'Sanitas' S.A. de Seguros,[15] now Spain's second largest private medical insurer. This has expanded to become a combined health insurance, hospital, clinic, dental and aged care business operating under the Sanitas brand.

During the 1990s, Bupa continued to expand internationally. An insurance business was established in Thailand which was sold in 2017 to Aetna.[16] Bupa Ireland, a health insurance business, was established in 1996 but sold in 2007.

Bupa also diversified in the UK into care homes with the acquisition of 200 homes through Community Nursing Homes, Goldsborough Healthcare Group[17] and Care First Group.[18]

In 1997, Bupa entered the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in partnership with the Nazer Group to form Bupa Arabia. In 2008, Bupa Arabia was listed on the Tadawul, the Saudi stock market. Bupa Arabia is now the leading health insurance provider in the KSA. Bupa owns 43.25% of this business.[19][20]

In the 2000s, Bupa entered the Australian health insurance market, opened hospitals in Spain and expanded its network of clinics and care homes in the UK.[13]

In 2007, Bupa completed the sale of its UK hospitals business to Spire Healthcare.[21] Bupa’s rationale was that the scale of both its UK hospitals and insurance businesses meant that they were becoming increasingly constrained by being part of the same group.

Significant acquisitions followed. The largest of these was the merger of Bupa's insurance business in Australia with the insurance group MBF to form what was then Australia’s second largest private medical insurer.[22] In 2011, Bupa Australia brought together the insurance brands MBF, HBA and Mutual Community under the Bupa brand. Bupa acquired the Amity Group of care homes in Australia in 2007.[23]

In 2010, Bupa launched a partnership in India with Max India Ltd, branded Max Bupa.[24] In 2016, Bupa increased its ownership of Max Bupa, to 49%.[25] In 2019, Bupa completed the transition to a new partner, True North, while retaining a 44.42% stake in Max Bupa.[26]

In 2012, Bupa acquired the largest private healthcare network in Poland, LUX MED, from the private equity fund Mid Europa Partners for €400m.[27][28]

Other acquisitions in this period included: Dental Corporation,[29] Australia and New Zealand’s largest dental provider;[30] Quality HealthCare, a private clinic network in Hong Kong;[31] a 49% stake in Highway to Health, Inc., a US health insurer specialising in providing international health insurance for US residents planning to live or work abroad.[32]

In February 2015, Bupa acquired a controlling share in Chilean private healthcare network Cruz Blanca.[33][34][35] In 2016, Bupa became the sole owner of Cruz Blanca[36] (branded as Bupa Chile[37]). Bupa Chile opened a major hospital in Santiago in 2018.[38]

In 2016, Bupa acquired Care Plus, a health insurance business in Brazil.[39][40]

In the UK, in 2016, Bupa sold its home healthcare medication delivery division to Celesio AG.[41]

In 2017, Bupa completed the purchase of Oasis Dental Care, the UK's leading private dental provider with 380 practices, for £835 million, from Bridgepoint, a Private Equity group.[42] As a result Bupa became a major dental provider. The business has since grown to around 490 clinics in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.[43][44] Bupa operates dental practices in the Republic of Ireland under the Smiles Dental brand.[45]

In the UK, in August 2017, it sold 122 care homes, with 9,000 beds, to HC-One for £300 million.[46][47] 22 further homes were sold to Advinia Healthcare.[48]

In 2018, Sanitas acquired Nectar Seguros,[49] a Spanish private health insurer[50] and Ginemed, an IVF and fertility business with 18 clinics across Spain and Portugal.[51][52]

In January 2019, Bupa acquired Acibadem Sigorta in Turkey. Bupa Acıbadem Sigorta[53] is Turkey's second largest health insurer with both corporate and individual customers. Headquartered in Istanbul, it insures 600,000 people.[54][55]

• Bupa Health Insurance, with four million customers, is a leading health insurance provider in Australia and also offers health insurance for overseas workers and visitors.
• Bupa Health Services is a health provision business, comprising dental, optical, audiology, medical assessment services and health care for the Australian Defence Force.
• Bupa Villages and Aged Care Australia cares for around 6,000 residents across 72 homes.
• Bupa Villages and Aged Care New Zealand cares for around 3,400 residents in 48 homes and 7 rehabilitation centres and provide independent living in 32 retirement villages in New Zealand.

The company's main office is in Melbourne. Other major offices are in Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney.

• Sanitas Seguros is the second largest health insurance provider in Spain, with 1.8m customers.
• Sanitas Hospitales and New Services comprise four private hospitals, 25 private medical clinics, 18 fertility clinics (in Spain and Portugal), and one public hospital under a Public-Private partnership model.
• Sanitas Dental provides dental services through 194 centres and third-party networks in Spain.
• Sanitas Mayores cares for around 4,900 people in 47 care homes and operates six daycare centres in Spain.
• LUX MED is a private healthcare business in Poland, operating in health funding and provision through 8 hospitals and 233 private clinics.
• Bupa Chile is a health insurer serving 800,000 customers and offering provision services across four hospitals and 34 medical clinics.
• Bupa Acıbadem Sigorta is Turkey’s second largest health insurer, with products for corporate and individual customers, and has around 650,000 customers.
• Care Plus is a health insurance company in Brazil, with around 120,000 customers, concentrated in São Paulo.
• Bupa Mexico is a health insurer offering private medical insurance to individuals and corporates in Mexico, with around 60,000 customers.
• Bupa Global Latin America provides international health insurance, local health insurance, and travel insurance to around 80,000 customers. Main operations include Guatemala, Panama, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile, as well as a health provision business in Peru.

The Europe and Latin America's division's headquarters are in Madrid.

• Bupa UK Insurance is a health insurer in the UK, with 2.3m customers.
• Bupa Dental Care is a leading provider of private dentistry with 493 dental centres across the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
• Bupa Care Services cares for around 5,800 residents in 124 care homes, and nine Richmond care villages in the UK. 
• Bupa Health Services comprises 48 health clinics and the Cromwell Hospital in London.
• Bupa Global serves over 550,000 International Private Medical Insurance customers and administers travel insurance and medical assistance for individuals, small businesses and corporate customers.

Bupa has its global and UK head offices in central London. In the UK, there are also major offices in Staines, Salford Quays, Brighton, Bristol and Leeds.

Bupa also has associate health insurance businesses in Saudi Arabia (Bupa Arabia) and India (Max Bupa), a health insurance (Bupa Hong Kong) and provision business (Quality Healthcare) in Hong Kong SAR and a representative office (in Beijing) and medical centre (in Guangzhou) in mainland China.

The Bupa UK Foundation[62] focuses on grant-giving and charity partnerships around mental health. These include Beyond Words for World Mental Health Day supported by Cheltenham Festivals, Mind, National Literacy Trust.[63][64]

The Bupa Health Foundation is one of the leading charitable foundations dedicated to health in Australia. The foundation invests in research that claims to improve health and it collaborates with researchers across academic, industry and healthcare communities. It advocates for researchers, organisations and initiatives that are improving health capacity building by developing skills and networks of health and medical researchers.[65] Over the last 10 years the foundation has invested more than AUS$35 million in partnerships.[66][67] Focus areas include youth mental health including partnerships with Kids Helpline, Macquarie University Centre for Emotional Health, Edith Cowan University.[68] [69]

The Fundacion Sanitas focuses on inclusive sports, the recognition of young doctors in Spain, the health and well-being of caregivers of people with dementia, cooperation in health and research in cardiovascular diseases.[70]

Bupa UK has been criticised by some judges, coroners and regulators regarding failures to meet regulatory standards in some of its residential care homes.[71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80]

Staff and families of residents in some care homes have criticised Bupa for allegedly prioritising profits to the detriment of care.[81][82] In 1999 seven care workers who reported abuse of residents to Bupa UK senior management became known as the Bupa Seven in media reports.[83][81][84][85][86]

In 2017, a data breach involving health insurance customers in its Bupa Global division.[87]

In 2018, Bupa UK was fined £3 million after a resident died after contracting Legionnaire's disease.[88] The fine was reduced to £1.5 million.[89]

Bupa's operations in Australia have been the subject of regulatory action and criticism in news media, particularly in 2018 and 2019. As of May 2020, there are no Bupa aged care homes currently operating under regulatory sanctions.[90]

Previous issues and allegations made include:

• Rejecting insurance claims without doctor review, while telling patients the rejections had been 'determined by medical practitioner'.[91]
• Neglect of elderly patients.[92] Complaints by the Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck that Bupa had persistently failed to meet regulatory standards. Bupa's ANZ CEO gave an apology on ABC for "totally unacceptable" failings .[93]
• Charging aged care residents in 20 of its homes for "extra" services that were not ultimately delivered to 4,306 residents.[94] Bupa's apology and explanation of the issue are here.[95] In May 2020, the Australian Federal Court approved a AUS$6m settlement between Bupa and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).[96]
• Failure to pay 270 invoices worth an estimated $73,000 to psychologists treating military personnel.[97]

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