OIG blasts international marketing program at Miami’s Jackson Health

The Miami-Dade Office of Inspector General released an 82-page report Thursday strongly condemning some practices of the company that until last spring ran Jackson Health System's international marketing program -- particularly questioning the value of government hospitals spending millions of dollars to attract foreign patients. The key section of the report -- based on an investigation that began 1 ½ years ago after a whistle-blower complaint -- disputed how Foundation Health Services calculated the number of foreign patients it brought into the system. Without an accurate calculation, Jackson doesn't know whether its foreign-patient marketing efforts are worth the millions of dollars it spends. FHS was blasted by county commissioners last year after previous criticisms leveled by Inspector General Christopher Mazzella. In the spring, Jackson transferred its program to attract foreign patients to a new nonprofit entity. Almost all FHS employees moved to the new entity as well. The only exception was FHS Chief Executive Rolando Rodriguez.