Thread: FL: Undocumented immigrant and federal fugitive costs taxpay

Undocumented immigrant and federal fugitive costs taxpayers $350,000 at Miami-Dade hospitals

September 9, 2011

An undocumented immigrant who was a federal fugitive for 27 years cost taxpayers $350,000 for his healthcare at South Florida hospitals.


By John Dorschner


A longtime federal fugitive who was an undocumented immigrant cost taxpayers more than $350,000 in healthcare at Miami-Dade hospitals before he died last year, a county investigative report has revealed.

The Miami-Dade Office of the Inspector General said the patient was a Colombian who fled the United States in 1983 after a cocaine smuggling conviction but returned under a false name. In 26 visits to the Jackson Health System from 2003 through 2010, his care cost $201,716 — $155,334 in charity care paid by Miami-Dade taxpayers and $46,382 paid by Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor.

The man also ran up $163,734 in bills from other healthcare providers that were paid by Medicaid.

The OIG report identified the man only by his initials, citing federal patient privacy laws, but the U.S. Marshals Service said Friday that the man was Luis Hernando Franco-Pinilla, who used the alias Eliseo Delatorre Castro.

With Jackson struggling to overcome more than $400 million in losses the past three years and Florida legislators trying to reduce ever-increasing Medicaid costs, the case raises crucial questions about providing healthcare to people who are in the United States illegally and verifying patient identities. “Do we just let them suffer?â€

Why hasn't his family been arrested for fraud? Why isn't the hospital going after his family for payment?

Added to Homepage with amended title:
http://www.alipac.us/article-6583--0-0.html

Really, is anyone surprised that Miami-Dade is inconsistent? It appears that their hospital documents have hanging chads too.

You want medicaid? Then put your fingerprint on the application. If you are on the government dole, then you loose a degree of your privacy. I have a right to know who I'm supporting with welfare.

I'm telling you, if we published the names of people on welfare, a large percentage of them would get off it. If people felt shame in letting the government support them, they would stop it. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for helping people in a bad situation but welfare should not be for a lifetime or a lifestyle.

Dixie