The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is the biggest public health crisis of all time. Private health care plays a major role in health globally. We conducted a study to document the engagement of a Brazilian private health care organization to influence decisions to private and public health emergencies of COVID-19.

This retrospective study evaluated the outputs of the health technology assessment (HTA) group of Unimed-BH, a private Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) with 1.5 million participants in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais state. The study evaluated the impacts on the overview of health local decisions in the municipality and the national supplementary health agency (ANS) during the period from March 2020 to December 2022.

During the pandemic, Unimed-BH made all its sanitary decisions based on scientific research, such as the use of masks and appropriate medications. Even though some medicines, such as regdanvimab, were authorized for emergency use by the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA), Unimed-BH did not recommend their use due to uncertain evidence, and months later, ANVISA withdrew the registration.

Unimed-BH also conducted a systematic review of ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment, which showed no effect, and therefore did not recommend its use. Additionally, Unimed-BH provided weekly updates on COVID-19 data, including suspected and confirmed cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in their customer portfolio. The organization also actively supported the decisions made by ANS and municipal managers using evidence and statistics on the pandemic. The Unimed-BH HTA group produced a total of 167 reports from March 2020 to December 2022.

Belo Horizonte had the lowest in-hospital mortality rates with COVID-19 in Brazil. Unimed-BH’s HTA reports provided evidence-based assessments for decision-making, proposed partnership with policymakers, fomented information transparency, and strict follow-up on pandemic numbers, which may have contributed to the lower fatality rate in our city. These findings underscore the importance of private healthcare organizations in responding to COVID-19 emergencies, and their potential to support evidence-based decision-making and minimize the impact of the pandemic.