Where the Best Interests of Uninsured Foreign Patients and U.S. Hospitals Align
901-684-6036 info@blatteislaw.com
Blatteis Law Firm, PLLC
Blatteis Law Firm, PLLC
Medical Repatriation
Legal Services
The Blatteis Law Firm, PLLC provides legal services to recommend Medical Repatriations only when they make sense. We are not interested in creating civil or criminal liability for our client hospitals by recommending Medical Repatriations when they are not an appropriate option for their patients. Ethics are paramount.
We begin with a consultation with the hospital to evaluate whether a medical repatriation for a patient is a viable concept to begin with. If so, the hospital, or their legal department, will engage us, usually for a flat fee, to conduct the due diligence with the cooperation of the hospital and the patient or their family or other surrogate. If the due diligence shows that the Medical Repatriation can provide the appropriate level of care at the patient's destination, then, and only then, would we move to the follow-through stage. During the follow through stage, we will work with foreign consulates to secure any needed passports or other travel documentation, identify appropriate options to consider for medically assisted patient transport, and prepare the written, bilingual patient-specific informed consent including obtaining foreign signatures of authorized parties, and confirm the patient's arrival to his foreign caregivers via medical repatriation.
We look forward to helping you achieve these win-win situations too. Please call or e-mail us for a consultation.
Best practices demand an ethical approach. Medical repatriations only make sense when they are in the best interests of uninsured foreign national patients, as confirmed by due diligence as to the care they will receive at their destination, and only when they or their surrogate gives informed consent. Otherwise, U.S. hospitals create real risks for their patients and for themselves. As independent legal advisors, the Blatteis Law Firm, PLLC provides the legal services needed to determine, conduct, and document a Medical Repatriation, but only when it makes sense for the patient, which by definition will mean that it makes sense for the hospital as well.
Sadly, there are many bad actors in the Medical Repatriation field, most of whom have a vested interest in seeing the Medical Repatriation proceed forward, no matter what. Our firm does not sell unrelated services, such as air ambulance services, which would incentivize a conflict of interest to proceed forward when it is in the service provider's economic interest as opposed to the hospital's or patient's best interest.
Our firm brings together U.S. Hospitals who want to help their foreign incapacitated patients recover in a supportive, familiar environment, rather than warehouse them alone in their hospital rooms indefinitely in what is, to the patient, a strange country, far away from their family, friends, language and culture -- all the while, at an exorbitant expense to the hospital and the patient and their family's psychological health. Successful medical repatriations result in healthier, happier patients and families; while, at the same time, they end the interminable costs and risks of long-term care for patients who do not need acute care hospital services, freeing up rooms and resources for other individuals in true need of urgent care. We look forward to helping you achieve these win-win situations too.
An Ethical Approach
Our Principal
Charles Blatteis, Esq.
Attorney Charles Blatteis was formally trained at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and Tulane Law School and is experienced in both common law and civil law jurisdictions. Attorney Blatteis assists U.S. hospital, corporate, and foreign clients in the areas of international corporate and transactional law, medical repatriation law, and high-profile immigrant civil rights litigation. Mr. Blatteis is fully fluent in Spanish and English and is “AV Rated,” the highest-level Martindale Hubbell peer-attorney rating. Additionally, he serves as a "Consulting Attorney" for the Consulate of Mexico in Little Rock and the Consulate of Peru in Atlanta. Before founding his own law firm, the Blatteis Law Firm, PLLC, he worked at various corporations and law firms, notably including International Paper Company, Baker and McKenzie (Chicago HQ), and Burch, Porter & Johnson. His distinguished career has led him to serve on multiple Boards of Directors, including those of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (Memphis Branch), the Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerce, the United Way of the Mid-South, and the Vitalant Blood Donation Community Leadership Council, to name but a few.