Unimed (organization)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Managed healthcare
- Insurance
 | |
| Company type | Cooperative |
|---|---|
| Industry |
|
| Founded | November 28, 1975 |
| Headquarters | São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil |
Area served | Brazil |
Key people | Omar Abujamra Junior (president) |
| Services | |
 R$271.1 million (2023) | |
| Total equity | R$520.4 million (2023) |
Number of employees | c. 136,000 (2022) |
| Website | www |
| Footnotes / references [1][2] | |
Confederação Nacional das Cooperativas Médicas (in English: National Confederation of Medical Cooperatives), commonly known as Unimed, is a Brazilian medical work cooperative and health insurance operator. It is considered the largest of its kind in the world, with more than 115,000 affiliated physicians, 386 branches and more than 15 million beneficiaries. Its name is a composite of união and médicos (Portuguese for "union" and "physicians").[3]
Created as an alternative against capital-based health plans, the cooperative was founded in 1967 in the city of Santos,[4] state of São Paulo, by Dr. Luiz Camargo Barbosa and 22 more doctors.
Unimed operates as a physician-owned cooperative. This means doctors hold a dual role: they are both members of the cooperative and providers of healthcare services. While some staff, like auditors or on-call personnel, may be salaried employees, the majority are members. The compensation of member physicians is directly tied to their production, which is typically determined by the quantity and type of procedures they perform.[5]
According to the World Cooperative Monitor 2023 Report, Unimed had 135,000 employees and $15.61 billion in revenue in 2021.[6] Unimed's website states that 143 thousand jobs are generated by the Unimed system,[7] implying the cooperative has seen employment growth since the World Cooperative Monitor's report was released. Notably, the report identified Unimed as a worker cooperative, meaning it may surpass the Mondragon Corporation as the largest worker cooperative in the world.
