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Many Self-insured Corporations are Being Lured by the Alleged Cost Savings of Signing with Medical Insurance Carriers who Offer to Export Employees for Unregulated, Foreign Medical Care.
The HR consulting service is designed to give HR Directors access to an expert in the field of Medical Tourism/Outsourcing
(PRWEB) 26 April 2012
There is absolutely no protection offered by the United States for any US citizens who suffer from medical error, malpractice or wrong doing when a US citizen receives healthcare abroad.
James Goldberg, author of a 450 page investigative look at Medical Tourism, The American Medical Money Machine, announced from New York that a new consulting service tailored to the needs of corporate HR Departments is now available. Goldberg said, “A dangerous new component of medical insurance is slowly being added to the options offered to corporations by third party administrators: the exportation of employees for cheaper foreign medical care. The consequences can be devastating.”
Goldberg said that “the new consulting service will give HR departments direct access to me and my staff to answer questions which are now confronting HR departments: whether to buy 3rd party administrated health plans which contain the option to export patients for foreign, cheaper and unregulated medical care.”
Robert Marshall of Homonculus Press, publisher of The American Medical Money Machine said, “Cost cutting pressures are being placed on HR directors to select health plans which save both the company and its employees money: often at the expense of their safety.”
“The Medical Tourism package seems, on the surface, reasonable and helps in helping to solve the growing costs of medical care, but the consequences behind this assumption are frightening and dangerous.” said Marshall. The United Steel Workers reported in a 2012 Press Release that they blocked Ridge Paper Company from sending a USW member for foreign medical treatment over concerns for the workers safety. The USW said that they would continue to enforce their policy barring corporations from sending workers for outsourced medical care, quoting the following:
“Self-insured corporations are expected to take advantage of low-cost overseas health care for their employees. One of the pioneers in this area, Blue Ridge Paper Co., of Canton, N.C., had planned to send its first worker to get surgery in India, but the United Steelworkers of America blocked it.”
“Since this is an unregulated area, expect to see some legislation designed to protect medical tourists. Goldberg’s son was allegedly murdered at Bumrungrad Hospital, the epicenter of Medical Tourism (exportation)” according to Robert Marshall, Editor of Homonculus Press.
The author stated, “There is absolutely no protection offered by the United States for any US citizens who suffer from medical error, malpractice or wrong doing when a US citizen receives healthcare abroad.” Despite efforts made as recently as April with Senators Grassley and Baccus who oversee Medicare in the US Senate, no substantive legislation has been introduced to protect American workers’ Goldberg told a community gathering, Great Decisions, studying foreign relations issues in Sandia Park, New Mexico, as recently as three weeks ago.”
Goldberg reported that the US has “no treaties with foreign countries in which American citizens who have suffered from either medical error or malicious maltreatment are protected.” Marshall reported that Goldberg’s “most recent attempts at alerting the Congress have been met with silence.”
HR Directors, said Goldberg, are “being lured by insurance behemoths that administer corporate health benefit programs into believing that foreign care is accredited by the same standards endowed by the US based Joint Commission. This is completely misleading. The Joint Commission has been actively selling world wide accreditations in order that hospitals abroad may receive Medicare and private reimbursements. This results in far higher medical insurance company profits at the expense of patient safety.” Goldberg went on to tell the Sandia Park Foreign Relations study group.
Goldberg has consulted and continues to do so with Senators Grassley and Baccus who oversee Medicare policy. Goldberg said, “My constant efforts to inform Congress and the Senate, to date, have resulted in absolutely no change!” Goldberg said, “The American Medical Money Machine deeply explores the hidden phenomenon of patient exportation which is about to hit the America public. Plans have been laid for this outsourcing for the last 20 years.” The results, he says, will be “to place Americans in danger, without any hope of legal recourse.”
Goldberg said that he “urges others to join [him] and the United Steel Workers to oppose shipping US citizens abroad for medical care. This, in simple terms,is the next wave of patient and doctor exploitation.” Author Goldberg said that “those third party administrators are paid to dispense medical benefits in behalf of the corporation. By buying procedures wholesale, such as heart surgeries or hip and knee replacements, enormous cost savings can be enjoyed while the third party administrators reap higher profit at the expense of patient safety. Our consulting service is designed to help make corporations aware of the health and financial consequences of Medical Outsourcing/Tourism.”
Goldberg said that “foreign hospitals who wish to capture American patients buy a US look a like accreditation, which is not sanctioned in any fashion by the United States.” The author went on to say “the standards sold to what now exceeds 400 foreign hospitals have no provision for being policed or enforced. The United States legal system has absolutely no jurisdiction over these hospitals that often proclaim, without providing proof, that most of their doctors are US Board Certified and trained. My research has revealed that this not the case and constitutes, at least, false advertising if not outright fraud. My HR Department Consultation Service provides for a complimentary initial analysis. Fees thereafter are based on need and scope.”
Goldberg warns HR departments to be “extra cautious, while the financial pressures of Obamacare are about to take permanent hold in 2013, by avoiding seeking to cut costs by resorting to the exportation of their employees for foreign, cheaper but unregulated medical care.”
“As an incentive to launch the consulting service, 50 complimentary copies of The American Medical Money Machine will be made available to HR Directors who request consulting assistance” according to the publisher.
