BUPA

BUPA is a healthcare organisation with bases on four continents and more than eight million customers in 192 countries.

Overview and history
BUPA began as The British United Provident Association in 1947. Its biggest and original business is health insurance in the UK for individuals, companies and other organisations. More than half of the UK's top companies are BUPA customers.

BUPA insures over 8.1 million people worldwide.

The company has its head office in central London, with main contact centres in Salford Quays and Staines.

BUPA also has offices in Brighton (BUPA International), Bristol (BUPA Health Assurance), Ashford, Surrey (Information Systems) and Leeds (BUPA Care Services).

The company is known for its sponsorship of main events, such as the Great North Run, held annually in Newcastle upon Tyne, and the Great South Run, held annually in Portsmouth.

BUPA staff take calls for Comic Relief during the appeal.

A global health and care specialist
BUPA is now a global health and care specialist with services that include:
 * health insurance
 * hospitals
 * cosmetic surgery
 * care homes
 * health assessments
 * health at work services
 * childcare

BUPA has businesses in Asia, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Thailand. It also owns several healthcare companies overseas including Spain's largest healthcare company, Sanitas, and acquired IHI Danmark (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Amedex (Miami, USA) in September 2005. In November 2006 BUPA acquired Clinovia, the UK’s home healthcare specialist, in a move that gave BUPA new opportunities in the expanding out of hospital care market.

On 14th December 2006, BUPA announced it would leave the Irish market following a warning that the company would have to pay €161m over the next three years to support its main rival, Vhi Healthcare, who demanded that "risk equalisation" would be required to be subsidised from BUPA. Vhi Heathcare has more older members, which results in more claims, and that the health insurance market would need to help them, to keep providing the services. BUPA Ireland operated from its corporate headquarters in Dublin, and its call centre in Fermoy, Co. Cork. On January 31st 2007, BUPA Ireland announced a takeover agreement with Quinn Group, resulting in BUPA Ireland transferring around 750,000 members and saving over 300 jobs. The takeover was concluded on 17 April 2007 when the outfit was fully relaunched as Quinn Healthcare.

In June 2007 BUPA announced that it had agreed to sell its hospitals business, comprising 25 hospitals, to the European private equity firm, Cinven for £1.44 billion ($2.8 billion) (Euro 2.13 billion). The BUPA Board stressed that the sale would have no effect on holders of BUPA health insurance in the UK, who will have access to the same range of hospitals they currently have. The rest of the BUPA Group was not for sale.

Corporate status
In 2006 BUPA changed from being a provident association to being a company limited by guarantee. As such BUPA reinvests its surpluses into improved health and care facilities such as medical equipment, the latest technology and buildings.

Medical research
BUPA annually awards nearly £1.5 million in grants to the BUPA Foundation, an independent charitable foundation that supports projects to advance medical knowledge and improve treatments.

Leadership
BUPA's chief executive Val Gooding, who has been in the position since 1998, is ranked as the 16th most powerful businesswoman in the world according to Fortune magazine.