The NHS Providing Services to "Health Tourists" under False Pretenses

I have posted a number of previous notes about medical tourism. However, a recent article brought to my attention the concept of fraudulent medical tourism provided by the National Health Services (NHS) in the U.K. (see: Overseas 'health tourists' costing NHS at least £40m). By fraudulent, I mean that individuals from abroad not entitled to health services from this government health service are receiving them. Read the excerpt from the article below for more details. The NHS has lost at least £40m in four years by failing to identify so-called "health tourists" accessing hospital care, a BBC investigation has found. Health Minister Anna Soubry admitted the system for identifying people who are not entitled to free care is complex and at times "flawed". Hospitals in England and Wales are obliged to ensure NHS patients have lived in the UK for the past 12 months. But 45 out of 133 hospital trusts which gave details said they do not check....[T]hose hospitals that had identified overseas visitors who had received treatment on the NHS had written off more than £40m in losses. That is a figure that one MP described as "the tip of the iceberg" of overall costs of treating visitors who should not be given free access to the health care system. A six-month long investigation by the BBC also uncovered a thriving black market in medical referrals and treatment in which access to GPs and hospital care was being fraudulently bought and sold. In B...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Pathologists Authors: Tags: Healthcare Business Healthcare Delivery Hospital Executive Management Hospitals and Healthcare Delivery Medical Consumerism Medical Ethics Source Type: blogs