Mexico: medical travel warning

A U.S. government consulate in Tijuana has taken the unusual step of warning U.S. medical tourists against a Tijuana hospital. It says that, following years of complaints, St. Luke’s Hospital in Cabo San Lucas “preyed on Americans by overcharging, bullying them and refusing to release medical records.’’

100,000 U.S. tourists arrive in Los Cabos at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula each month, with some going to St. Luke’s Hospital in Cabo San Lucas.  However multiple complaints have been filed by U.S. citizens saying the hospital demanded tens of thousands of dollars in advance payments, threatened patients’ relatives and refused to release clinical reports on what care they had actually provided. That led the U.S. consulate in Tijuana to issue the unusual “health alert” about St. Luke’s business practices.

“U.S. citizens have reported instances of withholding care for payment, failing to provide itemised lists of charges, ordering unnecessary procedures, withholding  U.S. passports, obstructing medical evacuations, and refusing to discharge patients without payment,” the consulate said in the alert.

The consulate urged U.S. citizens to go to other hospitals listed on the consulate’s web page.

There is some evidence that St. Luke’s pays or otherwise compensates ambulance drivers and hotels to send American patients there. The alert advises citizens that certain hotels and resorts in the Los Cabos area “already have existing or informal relationships with St. Luke’s.”

St. Luke’s Hospital in Cabo San Lucas describes itself as the leading medical tourism hospital in Los Cabos. The medical specialties include bariatric surgery, cosmetic surgery, orthopaedics, paediatric surgery, dentistry, general surgery, gynaecology, cardiology, eye surgery, oncology and dermatology.