Texas Border Business
AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating two South Texas hospitals after Spanish-language billboards near the U.S.-Mexico border advertised childbirth services to expectant mothers in Mexico. The investigation is part of a sweeping investigation by the Office of the Attorney General into potentially unlawful birth tourism schemes.
Mission Regional Medical Center promoted “Birth Packages in South Texas” and directed prospective patients to the website havemybabyinTEXAS.com. Knapp Medical Center in Weslaco has also been implicated as being involved.
“My office will investigate any suspected illegal birth tourism schemes in Texas, including the operations of two South Texas hospitals that appeared to advertise birth tourism on a billboard near the border,” said Attorney General Paxton. “My office will continue to hold accountable any entity that knowingly facilitates fraud in our state.”
In April, Attorney General Paxton sued De’Ai Postpartum Care Center, a Houston-area operation, that was coaching Chinese nationals to deceive federal immigration officials and obtain birthright citizenship. That case remains ongoing.
Below is the statement From the spokesperson form Mission Regional Medical Center:
“Mission Regional Medical Center is a nonprofit community hospital that has served the Rio Grande Valley since 1954 with a mission to provide high-quality, compassionate care to one of the most medically underserved regions of Texas. A very limited local marketing campaign consisting of two billboards and a website was intended to provide information about available obstetrical services, generated very little patient volume, no financial benefit, and was discontinued immediately after concerns were raised. Self-pay obstetric services represented only 63 elective deliveries out of 791 births this year, with 98% of those patients providing U.S. home addresses, and pricing was set below the hospital’s cost of care at approximately Texas Medicaid reimbursement rates as part of our nonprofit mission to expand access to affordable maternity care for our community. Mission Regional Medical Center has never promoted birth tourism or encouraged unlawful activity and remains committed to full compliance with all applicable laws while continuing to provide essential, quality care to the Rio Grande Valley.”
As part of fair and balanced journalism, corporations named in Attorney General Ken Paxton’s investigation, including Mission Regional Medical Center and Knapp Medical Center, should be afforded the opportunity to respond to the allegations and provide their perspective. While the Attorney General’s office has announced a sweeping investigation into Mission Regional Medical Center and Knapp Medical Center and issued Civil Investigative Demands to Mission Regional Medical Center and Knapp Medical Center, the investigation remains ongoing, and no findings of wrongdoing have been made. Fair reporting requires that all parties have an opportunity to address the claims, explain their practices, and comment on the issues raised by the investigation. Send perspective to: info@tbbmega.com
Information source: Texas Attorney General’s Office
