Keeping Body and Mind in Shape with Sanitas

Every Sanitas plan comes with Sanitas Blua, a set of digital health tools that sit inside the app and cost nothing extra. A symptom checker tells you which specialist you need. A 20-minute digital check-up on your phone screens your heart, blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol risk, hearing, skin and mood. Digital physiotherapy corrects your exercises on camera. Take Care of Your Mind is an online psychology service. Seven coaching programmes put a Sanitas nutritionist, personal trainer, physiotherapist, psychologist, midwife or paediatric nurse at the end of a chat, a call or a video appointment. None of it has a waiting period, and the app works in English. If you do not use a smartphone, call us on (+34) 952 835 600 and we ask Sanitas to run the coaching programme by telephone; the self-check tools need the app.

This guide is about those self-care tools and the programmes behind them: what each one does, who runs it, what it will not do, and how to start. Seeing a doctor by video is a separate service with its own rules, covered in our video consultation guide.

What Sanitas Blua is

Sanitas is the Spanish company of the Bupa group, and Blua is the name Sanitas and the Bupa group use for their digital healthcare. In Spain the name covers everything Sanitas delivers through the app and the Mi Sanitas customer area rather than in a consulting room. The app is the doorway to all of it. Once your policy is activated, Sanitas sends you a text message with the link to the app, where you choose your language. The digital tools, the programmes and the video services then appear alongside your digital card and your appointments.

Blua is a standard part of the policy on every plan we sell. That means Accede, Avanza, Unico, Sanitas Mas Salud, Optima, Plus and Mas Salud Family. It also means Top Quantum, Residents Visa, Mas 90, Premium 500, International Students and the Professional plans. The self-check tools and the coaching programmes are part of every one of those plans as a standing cover that renews with the policy. What varies by plan is the copayment on a video appointment and the home services. Nothing about Blua changes the price of a plan, so the choice between plans comes down to the medical cover itself; compare the plans on our calculator to see the differences. Our Sanitas Blua page has the short version.

Two things Blua is not. It is not an emergency service. A life-threatening problem means 112; an urgent problem that is not life-threatening can use the 24-hour emergency video line, and our emergencies guide explains where to go. And the coaching programmes are advice and support, not treatment. They do not diagnose an illness, prescribe a test or a medicine, or stand in for a consultation that needs the doctor in the room.

The self-check tools in the app

Symptom checker

When you feel unwell and do not know which doctor to see, the symptom checker asks a handful of questions. In seconds it gives you a probable explanation, the speciality that should see you and what to do next. It is a signpost, not a diagnosis. Its real value in Spain is that most specialists on a Sanitas plan can be booked directly, without a referral from a GP, so knowing the right speciality saves you an appointment. Our primary care guide explains when a GP is still the right first call.

Digital check-up

The digital check-up is a preventive review you do on your phone or tablet in about 20 minutes, all at once or one test at a time. It screens eight things: high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and high triglycerides from a facial analysis, plus your hearing, your heart, skin lesions and your emotional state. Artificial intelligence reads the results, flags anything that looks wrong and steers you to an appointment with the right specialist, by video or in person.

Treat it as a screening tool. Some of its results change little over months; others may need repeating if a doctor wants to follow something up, and the doctor decides that, not the app. From the vital-signs reading you can go straight to the 24-hour emergency video service if you have a question about the result. A reading that worries you is a reason to book a consultation, which every plan covers from the first day.

Digital physiotherapy

Digital physiotherapy gives you exercise programmes to prevent injury and to treat and rehabilitate the main parts of the body: the spine, shoulder, knee, elbow, wrist and hand, hip, ankle and foot. You do the exercises at home in front of the phone camera. The app maps points on your body and tells you whether your position is right, correcting you in real time when it is not. It records your range of movement and lets a professional follow how you are progressing.

It suits the back that stiffens at a desk, the knee that needs strengthening after a sprain, the shoulder that has lost some movement, and the daily practice a physiotherapist asks for between sessions. It is not the physiotherapy cover of your plan. Those sessions are prescribed by a doctor and given in person by a network physiotherapist, with the copayments and session rules of your plan. Our physiotherapy guide sets them out, and the sports injuries guide covers what happens after an injury on the pitch. Longer recovery after surgery or a stroke follows the rehabilitation guide.

Take Care of Your Mind

Take Care of Your Mind is Sanitas' online psychology service, available whenever and wherever you open the app. It has four parts. A first orientation helps you understand what is troubling you, your worries and your circumstances. Digital therapies give you personalised content, in videos, audio, podcasts and reading, to work on your mood and emotional state. A companion function lets you log your emotions, physical activity and sleep so that patterns show up early. And professional support connects you to a Sanitas psychologist by video or in person when you need one. You can also take an online psychological assessment.

This is a digital service, and it is different from the psychology sessions written into your plan, which have their own session limits, prescriber rules and waiting periods. Our mental health cover guide explains those plan by plan and how to book a network psychologist. If your mind is being kept awake rather than low, the sleep guide covers sleep problems and sleep studies. If you or someone near you is in immediate danger, call 112.

The seven Blua coaching programmes

The coaching programmes are the part of Blua that gives you a named Sanitas professional for three months. Each is a personal programme of information, guidance and care delivered by phone, chat and video appointment. You and your adviser agree the targets and a schedule for keeping in touch, and on most programmes your progress shows in the app. Every programme is free, needs no doctor's note, and is personal to the insured person who asks for it. Every plan carries the same seven:

The seven Blua coaching programmes on every Sanitas plan

Programme	Who runs it	What it is for
Personal trainer and physiotherapy	Physiotherapists and personal trainers chosen by Sanitas for your case	Physical exercise to improve your fitness, following medical protocols and a programme built around your profile and health
Nutrition	Qualified nutrition and diet specialists	Healthy eating habits, with menus and recipes designed for your targets
Psychology	Psychologists working to medical protocols	Psychological wellbeing, with guidance and personalised care from a psychologist
Pregnancy	Midwives and maternity nurses	A healthy pregnancy, the postpartum period and the baby's first months, with advice on caring for the baby
Healthy Child	Paediatric nurses	The health and development of children up to 14, filling in around what the paediatrician tells you at appointments and answering your questions
Pelvic floor care	Physiotherapists	Guidance and support on care and rehabilitation of the pelvic floor, to prevent or improve pelvic floor problems
Quit smoking	Nurses and psychologists specialising in smoking cessation	Support for your decision to give up or cut down

Sanitas also runs a digital preventive programme in the app, with a medical team guiding you on avoiding cardiovascular disease, cancer and emotional problems. Sanitas can add digital benefits at no extra cost or replace the ones listed. Each appears in Mi Sanitas, on the website or in the app, with its own terms for you to accept before use.

How a programme works

• You ask for it yourself, through Mi Sanitas on the website or in the app, by chat or by booking a video appointment. You can also call us on (+34) 952 835 600 and we arrange it with Sanitas. No doctor's prescription is needed.
• The service runs Monday to Friday from 8am to 10pm, except Spanish national bank holidays and the local holidays of Madrid.
• An adviser answers your questions, agrees individual targets and an action plan with you, and schedules how often you speak and by which channel. You can ask for an appointment with your adviser at any point within the service hours.
• A programme lasts three months, and on most programmes your targets and progress also show in the app.
• The programme is personal to you and cannot be passed to anyone else on the policy; each insured person asks for their own. For anyone under 18, the adviser speaks with the parent or guardian.
• A video appointment inside a programme is offered where Sanitas provides for it, is always booked in advance and is not an emergency service.

What the programmes will not cover

A programme is guidance, not medicine. Anything that needs the doctor physically present is outside it. So is diagnosing an illness or prescribing a test or a treatment. A programme does not treat an illness, whether you were born with it or acquired it, that in the specialist's judgement prevents the plan being carried out.

Nutrition coaching is not offered if you are underweight with a body mass index below 17 or have an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia. Nor is it offered for any other serious condition that a healthcare professional decides should be followed in person. Body mass index is your weight in kilos divided by the square of your height in metres. Morbid obesity, a body mass index over 40 or over 35 with diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease or sleep apnoea, is outside the programme. Sanitas follows it under its own medical protocol once it has confirmed you meet its requirements. Our nutrition cover guide explains when a nutritionist is covered as a medical speciality. The psychology programme is not offered for psychotic illness, severe depression, eating disorders, personality disorders, dementia or cognitive impairment, which belong with the psychiatrists and psychologists of your plan. It is not offered for morbid obesity either, which follows the same medical protocol.

Who gets the most out of the programmes

• Someone with a goal. Losing weight, getting fit for a race, stopping smoking, sleeping better. A programme with a named nutritionist, trainer or nurse gives you agreed targets, regular contact and progress you can see in the app.
• Expectant mothers and new parents. The Pregnancy programme gives you a midwife by chat, phone or video between antenatal appointments, and it has no waiting period even where the childbirth cover of your plan does. Baby-care advice in the first months comes through your own Pregnancy programme; once the baby is added to the policy, Healthy Child can be started for the baby. The Healthy Child programme is for a child insured on the policy and answers the questions that do not fit into a paediatric appointment. Our midwives guide, pregnancy care guide and paediatrician guide cover the in-person side, and the children's health insurance guide explains what a child gets on the policy.
• Families. Each insured person can ask for their own programme. A household on Mas Salud Family can have a parent on the personal trainer programme and a child on Healthy Child at the same time. Ask us if one person wants two programmes running at once. The family health insurance guide covers the household policy.
• People who work for themselves. A programme fits around the working day, with advisers available until 10pm on weekdays and no weekend service; the self-employed guide looks at the Professional plans and their digital tools.
• Over-60s. The programmes are the same on Unico as on every other plan. The 20-minute check-up for blood pressure, hearing and mood and the pelvic floor programme are the tools that fit later life best, and neither needs a doctor's referral. The healthy ageing guide covers staying well later in life.

Seeing a doctor through the app

Blua also carries the video services, which are separate from the coaching. Sanitas quotes more than 3,600 professionals available by video and same-day digital consultations in ten specialities, plus a 24-hour emergency video line with no appointment. A specialist video appointment is free on the plans without copayments and on Accede and Avanza, carries the in-person copayment on Optima and Plus, and counts on the copayment scale on Unico. Our video consultation guide covers the emergency line, specialist video appointments and prescriptions, and the copayments themselves are in the copayments guide.

The everyday tools of the app

Beyond Blua, the app is where the policy is run day to day. It holds your digital card, so the physical card stays at home. It books, moves and cancels appointments with your doctors and searches the directory for doctors, hospitals, emergency centres and dental clinics near you. It keeps your medical reports, test results and pharmacy prescriptions in a health folder. Authorisations and reimbursements are requested from it, receipts and copayments are checked in it, and you can give another person on the policy permission to carry out procedures on your behalf. It runs in English and Spanish on every policy. Our guide to the Sanitas app in English sets out what it lets a policyholder do.

Which video and home services appear depends on your plan; the self-check tools and the seven programmes are on all of them. Home delivery of prescribed medicines, blood tests at home and physiotherapy at home are separate home services rather than part of the standard Blua service. Unico carries them, and for the other plans they come with the bluaU add-on range, so ask us before you count on one. The pharmacy add-on is the add-on that pays half of your prescription costs; the full list of extras is in the add-ons guide.

How to start

If you are not yet a Sanitas customer, take out a plan first; your policy starts on the first of a month and the steps below work from that day.

1. Once your policy is activated, Sanitas sends you a text message with the link to the app. Open it and choose your language, and the digital card appears at once. A tablet works for the camera tools.
2. Open the digital health section. The symptom checker, the digital check-up, digital physiotherapy and Take Care of Your Mind are there to use straight away, at any hour. You will not see the word Blua as a menu item. In Spanish the tools are Evalua tus sintomas, Chequea tu salud, Fisio digital, Cuida tu mente and Programas de salud. In English the app calls them Symptom Evaluator, Monitor your Health, Measurement of Vital Signs, Take Care of your Mind and the health programmes, with digital physiotherapy alongside them. The menus are in English, but the advisers and doctors are Sanitas professionals in Spain, so a call may be in Spanish.
3. To start a coaching programme, pick it in the app or the customer area and ask for contact by chat, a call or a video appointment. You can also call us on (+34) 952 835 600 and we arrange it with Sanitas. The adviser sets your targets with you.
4. If a tool sends you to a specialist, book the appointment in the app the same way as any other visit. If anything in the app is unclear, ring us and we will walk you through it in English.

The self-check tools and the coaching programmes are the same on every plan, so Blua never decides which plan to buy. What differs between the plans is the medical cover, the copayments and the waiting periods, and the waiting periods guide and the cost guide cover those. If you already hold a policy, the changing your plan guide explains what can change at renewal. A condition you already have is declared when you apply, as the pre-existing conditions guide describes, and it does not affect your access to the digital tools.

Frequently asked questions