~ At least three shady companies owned by LCF President of CME.~
MARIGOT/PHILIPSBURG:--- USZV has an outstanding bill at the Louis Constant Fleming Hospital (LCF) which stands at a whopping 353,412.67 Euros, even though the President of the hospital CME Dr.Louis Jeffry has been submitting bills to USZV under different shady companies.
Observatoire Sint Maarten/St. Martin (OBSXM) Illicare and Careaway are some of the companies that submitted invoices to USZV. Based on the billings that LCF accumulated since December 2016 only Euros 3,000 has been paid thus far.
USZV patients that dispensed medication at several pharmacies on St. Martin have not been paid, along with the laboratories that performed tests for those patients. At the moment the laboratories on the French side are demanding cash payments for their services.
USZV also owes CHU Pointe Pitre, and Clinique des Eaux Claires (CEC) in Guadeloupe.
OBSXM is an association that was created to enhance health care cooperation between the neighboring islands but instead of enhancing cooperation the Association is used as a referral agency between Dutch and French side.
Dr. Louis Jeffry also created an offshore company in London by the name of Illicare which is also used to bill USZV for services rendered to patients that sought medical care at LCF. Another company that is not registered on St. Martin/St. Maarten is Careaway that has its office inside of LCF offering services only to USZV patients yet LCF is not being paid for its services.
The unpaid bills for several of USZV patients has created an unhealthy situation for those patients since they are not able to obtain medical care at LCF.
Currently the ARS is looking into the shady operations that are granted by OBSXM, Careaway and Illicare since none of these companies received authorization from the ARS to provide medical services on the French side, besides that the ARS has launched an investigation into the unpaid bills to LCF, CHU and CEC since all of these institutions fall under the French State.
On April 5th 2018, the Director of ARS met with the Interim Minister of VSA Emil Lee and his cabinet staff seeking for the two sides to work together under a legal structure. Based on a letter that was sent to Lee on February 27th 2018 by ARS they specifically requested that the Inspector of Health Dr.Earl Best and the French Consul Stanislas Graire attend that meeting but according to information provided to SMN News those persons were not invited to the meeting and the only persons that met with the French representatives were the Minister and his cabinet staff.
USZV clients have been suffering whenever they need medical care that they are unable to obtain at the St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC). Those patients are sent to Curacao, Colombia, Dominican Republic and sometimes to the Netherlands while the same medical care can be provided at LCF if USZV makes an effort to work under legal structure with LCF and the ARS.
While the ARS is busy with its investigation SMN News also learned that the Police Judiciaries is also busy investigating the operations of OBSXM, Illicare and Careaway.
