About

Part of the international healthcare specialist Bupa, the in-house legal team at medical insurance company Sanitas Spain manages Bupa’s businesses in Europe and Latin America’s market unit, (ELA MU). ELA MU manages six business units with a total turnover of €3.5bn within the private medical insurance, medical services, care homes and dental businesses in five different countries. The business model is built on permanent innovation, now focusing on digital transformation, medical and clinical excellence and high standards in corporate social responsibility. Within the last two years, the teams have been central to the innovation and digitalisation of the business, something which general counsel, Mónica Paramés admits: ‘has been a big challenge for us all, especially because of the advice that has been constantly demanded due to the implementation of innovation and digital transformational and the legal complexities it entails’. Nevertheless, in order to stay abreast, four of the team members – three now in the legal team and one in the corporate governance and privacy area, have participated in an internal talent programme called “Disruptive”, aimed at promoting disruptive innovation through the incubation and acceleration of start-ups within the insurance and healthcare industry. ‘This programme has helped enhance digital skills and new ways of working within the teams. We have become mentors in digitalisation of our businesses making part of all the project teams from the very beginning to the end. This meant embedding a LEAN culture and continuous improvement focused in customers, AGILE methodology, meaning to act only on fact and not on opinion and work together as a company’, says Paramés. The legal area of ELA has been divided into core functions of first and second lines of defence: one comprises a legal function led by Miguel Escalona and a second one comprising governance, corporate secretarial and privacy functions, as well as risk and compliance headed by, Mónica Paramés. The legal team is led by Miguel Escalona who continues to give a wide advisory role to the business on day-to-day legal matters and a holistic assessment on legal and regulatory risks taking into account the needs of a broad range of external and internal stakeholders. The legal team is fully prepared to identify potential legal and regulatory issues as soon and as efficiently as possible, managing them as they materialise and begin to impact the company. The legal team assisted in the acquisition of a majority stake in Clinicas Ginemed, an in vitro fertilisation business, and one of the leading companies specialised in fertility and assisted reproduction in Spain. The purchase of Ginemed’s shares enabled by the legal team has allowed Sanitas to increase its presence in a health sector with great growth prospects and to expand the offer of its products in fertility and assisted reproduction to patients.