It now appears that going to Puerto Rico is not going to be an option after all as was announced back in July of 2011. In addition to the activities questioned by the City of Hartford, also keep in mind the former CEO of Cigna works there too, which makes one wonder maybe about his choice of affiliates? 
City of Hartford First Major US City to Offer Medical Travel Benefits to Employees With Approximately 6% in Total Budget Savings
The contract had a 90 days clause and it looks like they have exercised the option to say no. So what did he do? He was ordered to pay more than $36 million for defrauding share holders in a former company that went bankrupt. The value of the company was over inflated and he received 51 months in custody. I’ll tell you today you really need some due diligence everywhere you go and check out everything as thoroughly as you can.
They said this fact was omitted in his background and sometimes on the web folks do what is called reputation restitution, to where spam blogs are created that buries this type of information in Google and other searches too. I know about that because I had a couple of them spam this blog with comments, but they weren't too smart as when you use a robotic program that repeatedly spams a legitimate blog with the hopes of creating more back links to the “splogs” it can backfire and thus so I know of a couple, just because I got spammed. With all the money at stake it boggles my mind how someone chooses a somewhat amateur solution that may be cheap when they have so much money at hand to pay and at least get it done right without spamming. Oh well, that could be perhaps what this person may have entertained but folks on the web are getting wise to it now and no Puerto Rico hospital visits for now for the folks in Hartford. They also have a couple other contracts with press releases out there, one in Austin and I wonder some of the others will work out. BD
The chequered past of Satori Wold Medical’s CEO, Steven Lash, has resulted in the cancellation of Satori’s contract with the US city of Hartford to provide discounted surgery in Puerto Rico for city and board of education employees, before a single employee has gone abroad. In a July press release Satori claimed that Hartford was the first major city in the United States to offer this innovative medical travel benefit to their employees and dependents.
Local newspaper, the Hartford Courant ran a feature on the Satori medical tourism scheme entitled 'City's New Benefit: 'Medical Tourism’. The columnist, Kevin Rennie, a lawyer and a former Republican state legislator wrote:
“It's all in the hands of Satori, which won the competitive bid for the Hartford contract. Satori president Steven Lash has a wide array of experience. He was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison in 2004 and ordered to pay $36 million in restitution for his role in a $60 million fraud prosecution involving a physician network management company, according to newspaper reports. This is omitted from his extensive online company profile. After executing a pump and dump stock scheme, Lash will not fear employees' Connecticut primary care physicians who cavil at patients flying to San Juan for sophisticated treatment”
City spokeswoman Sarah Barr said, ”The city decided to cancel the contract because of fraudulent behavior that was brought to light in lawyer Kevin Rennie's opinion column. When Satori World Medical Inc. was confronted about Steven Lash's prior convictions, the city was not satisfied with the answers it received and the contract was terminated."
The city has invoked a 90-day cancellation clause in the contract. There has been no criticism of the hospitals in Puerto Rico.
Wow, ask.com thought Satori the best.
ReplyDeleteWhat about (healthbase.com) ?