Colombian Constitutional Court mandates EPS to evaluate mental health before denying reconstructive surgery

The Colombian Constitutional Court issued Decision T‑152 of 2026, requiring health‑promotion entities (EPS) to conduct an interdisciplinary assessment of both physical and mental health before refusing reconstructive plastic surgery. The ruling arose from a tutela filed by a 37‑year‑old woman who, after bariatric sleeve gastrectomy with Sanitas, lost 37 kg and suffered excess skin, chronic pain, infection risk, lipodystrophy and diagnosed depression.

The Court found that Sanitas’ review committee, composed only of plastic surgeons, ignored the patient’s mental‑health diagnoses and therefore failed to provide an integral diagnosis as mandated by the constitutional right to health. It ordered the EPS to convene a multidisciplinary medical panel—including plastic surgery, nutrition, hematology, psychiatry, psychology and gastroenterology—to determine eligibility for reconstructive procedures that address functional impairment or severe psychological impact. The decision clarifies that reconstructive, not merely aesthetic, surgeries can be covered when they are necessary for physical function or serious mental‑health consequences.