REIMBURSEMENTS: UMC SHOULD GET HELP FROM FEDS

University Medical Center continues to play a role in the Mexican
drug-driven violence, even though the facility is in El Paso.

It's understood that under federal law, the hospital cannot refuse
emergency service to anyone on American soil. And it's hardly a
surprise that injured survivors on the blood-letting prefer to come to
the United States and UMC for treatment of their injuries.

Seeking treatment in Juarez can be the equivalent of a death sentence,
because hit men don't hesitate to come into hospitals to kill targets
being treated.

Also, physicians and other medical personnel in Juarez are targets of
extortionists and kidnappers.

But rendering such services costs money, and when people come across
the border -- the border being a federal responsibility -- to be
treated, the feds should be covering the bills.

UMC CEO Jim Valenti and Dr. Jose Manuel de la Rosa, founding dean of
the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at El Paso Paul L.
Foster School of Medicine, said it well in an April 16 letter to
President Obama: "Local taxpayers are footing the bill for the
consequences of a conflict that is occurring on foreign soil."

Even El Paso's congressman, Silvestre Reyes, has been unable to wrest
money from the feds. He's tried to get money through border security
bills and the Merida Initiative, to no avail.

Reyes spokesman Vince Perez said, "This is a problem that other cities
in the nation, even along the border, aren't having to deal with."

The federal refusal to help where it should isn't surprising. When it
comes to border security in general, the government hasn't shouldered
its responsibility adequately. Reimbursements for UMC are no exception.

According to UMC figures as of Dec. 16, since 2008, the hospital has
furnished treatment to the tune of $4.7 million for patients wounded
in Mexico and transported to the U.S. and UMC. Reimbursements to the
hospital are only $1.2 million.

In 2010, UMC saw 64 "victims related to the violence in Mexico." Of
those, 52 were U.S. citizens and 12 Mexican citizens.

The violence in Mexico doesn't appear to be easing off; indeed, it
seems to get worse. And there's no reason to believe that UMC will
cease being the destination of choice for many of those wounded in the
violence.

Paying for this is not the responsibility of El Paso County taxpayers,
and there's little hope of receiving payment from health insurance
companies.

The feds need to step up and assume their rightful responsibility here
- -- reimbursing UMC for the treatment of "victims related to the
violence in Mexico."