Legal Issues

 

 

Many significant questions are now being and will continue to be raised as American patients receive medical care overseas.

The US does not participate in any treaties that provide protection for American citizens who may be hurt or killed overseas while seeking health care.

Initially, foreign health care was limited to the "accidental" tourist. Now, the Joint Commission, endowed by Congress in 1965 to accredit hospitals in the US in order that they be deemed worthy of receiving Medicare, are now institutionalizing foreign care by extending hospital networks to accreditation of foreign hospitals.

In fact, they were NEVER given the power to do so by Congress which limited their accreditation powers to the US and its territories. However the Joint Commission is now providing "look alike" accreditation to hospitals overseas. When I say look alike, I mean the Joint Commission makes it appear through the misleading use of their logo, that foreign hospitals are being accredited on par with US hospitals. This is deceptive and fraudulent, the author believes.

Further, since these foreign hospitals are receiving Joint Commission accreditation, American insurance companies AND Medicare will pay them for their services.

Since the US has no jurisdiction abroad, a patient who may be injured or killed, is left to the local laws of the land of the medical facility in which they have been harmed.

Essentially means, they are OUT OF LUCK.

The US Government will do nothing to help injured Americans and in countries like Australia, many injured patients are returning to have the problems sustained abroad fixed! This places enormous new burdens on the hospitals in Australia and the same situation promises to become globalized.

In the US most doctors will NOT touch a patient who has been harmed elsewhere: often through procedures which are not permitted in the US.

Since the American insurance cartel is selling policies for offshore care...and this will continue to proliferate...interesting and untested legal questions arise.

The book contains detailed discussions which trial lawyers, especially those involved in personal injuries, must understand. This previously esoteric area: Medical Tourism, holds enormous consequences for jurisprudence in the US. Many cases will be brought which will go to high Courts, eventually, I predict, even the Supreme Court.

The companies who are promoting foreign care do so in the US and some are actually US companies who are selling and or administering insurance policies for foreign care. What is their responsibility in the event of a mishap. What about follow up once a patient returns home?

In the case of my son, he was murdered at Bumrungrad Hospital, I am informed and believed, for his organs. What are the legal ramifications for American citizens who receive organ transplants who return home and become ill? Who is responsible?

The questions are profound and will become big business as the hundreds of US accredited foreign hospitals continues to expand.