Walter Pincus: Contractors Getting Free Care In Iraq From Military Clinics

[babylonsister]

:grr:

Contractors Using Military Clinics
Civilians Also Are Not Paying, Audit Says

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 7, 2009


Military clinics and field hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan have supplied more than $1 million a month in health-care services to civilian contractors during the past two years without seeking reimbursement from their employers, as provided by law, according to a new audit by the Defense Department inspector general.

The report, issued Monday, noted that all costs associated with both emergency and primary medical care are reimbursable to the government and are the responsibility of the contingency contractor personnel, their employer or their health insurance provider.

Yet the study found that Army, Navy and Air Force clinics and hospitals were not billing contractors because there was no unified system for doing so. Moreover, more than half the contracts were vague about who pays for the medical treatment of employees, although the law is clear on this point, the IG found.

Investigators cited cases in which contractors were hospitalized with heart problems, pneumonia, an accidental self-inflicted gun shot or injuries from a blast, but the medical facilities did not bill the patients' employers for $141,340 for their stays. At the time, the military did have rates of $2,041 a day for nonmilitary inpatients and $195 per visit for outpatients.

Two contractors, Blackwater Worldwide, now known as Xe, and KBR, operated medical facilities for their own personnel and for other nonmilitary people. The cost of those facilities was included in their overall contracts, but the IG investigators said the contractors did not break out what they were charging the Army overall for the medical treatment they were providing.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/06/AR2009050603949.html?wprss=rss_world/mideast/iraq

[babylonsister]

1. Kicking, because this makes me nuts. nt

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

Mister Solly Mack said it wasn't unheard of to see KBR employees at military clinics back in 2003.

When I go to the doctor I have to sign a paper stating what other party, if any, can be billed for my visit/treatment. The military will bill your other-than-military carrier first and then pick up the rest...if such a carrier exist.

The question is - if they have a system in place for doing that with military families, why not for contractors?

[babylonsister]

3. It's ludicrous, considering the size of these contracts, the number

of contractors there are/were, and the astronomical amounts these companies made, that no one had the forsight to write in a provision to address this?

It's baloney.

[conscious evolution]

4. When I worked for

the DoA it was written in our contracts and TDYs that we got care at Military clinics.
Some places its a lot healthier to go the base clinic then local facilities.I would have to imagine that Iraq is one of those places.
As much as I dislike KBR I can't begrudge them for this.

[SoCalDem]

5. No one begrudges them the CARE..but shame on the clinic

and the military for not billing the contractors' bosses, and for not FORCING them to reimburse for the care..

Those gazillion-dollar no-bid contracts surely had enough built into them for medical coverage..

It's not too late now.. hospitals "follow" former patients for decades, trying to get them to pay up.. Let;s go after Blackwater XE & DynCorps & all the others...

[Solly Mack]

6. I agree. You'd think there would be a protocol in place

Since, as I said, there is one in place for military family members with additional insurance.

especially since, obviously, the DoD expected to be reimbursed