Disposable Army - Foreign Contractors in the US military

[Magda Hassan]

For AIG’s Man in Jordan, War Becomes a Business Opportunity by T. Christian Miller, ProPublica - December 17, 2009 8:41 pm EST

AMMAN, Jordan—For Emad Hatabah, the war in Iraq became a business opportunity.
As AIG's chief representative in Jordan, he was responsible for coordinating the care for hundreds of Iraqis who had been injured while working under contract for U.S. troops as linguists, truck drivers and other jobs.
He fulfilled his functions by sending business to himself, his friends and business associates, according to interviews and records. For instance, Hatabah created his own air ambulance service in July 2006, a company called Arab Assist, which AIG hired to transport injured patients from Iraq to Jordan, records show.
"They needed someone who has lots of connections. I'm a doctor with lots of connections," Hatabah said during an interview at a hotel on a street crowded with hospitals and medical offices in Amman.
But those connections have raised questions about whether Hatabah acted in the best interests of the injured Iraqis or of his ad-hoc medical network. Taxpayers may ultimately pay the bill for such care under a U.S. law which allows insurance firms such as AIG to seek full reimbursement for the cost of treating civilian contractors injured in combat.
Hatabah sent scores of interpreters and other Iraqi hires to a Jordanian hospital called Al Khalidi, where the chief of the intensive care unit was a business partner and college friend, Nael Abu Khaff. He called it the best hospital to treat them. While they were waiting for care, Hatabah had the interpreters stay at hotels owned by friends, he said.
In an interview at Al Khalidi hospital, Abu Khaff confirmed his business dealings with Hatabah, but said that his hospital was chosen to care for the patients because it was one of the best in Jordan.
"We were the provider of medical treatment to these patients. I'm not an insurance doctor," Abu Khaff said.
Hatabah also negotiated with Jordan’s immigration authorities to arrange for their visas, worked with local banks to set up accounts for the interpreters and obtained rehabilitation therapy and prosthetic devices.
Colleen Driscoll, a former official for defense contractor L-3, questioned Hatabah's choices. For instance, Al Khalidi hospital is a well-respected local institution, but it has not been accredited by the U.S.-based Joint Commission International--the gold standard certification held by other Jordanian hospitals.
Hatabah also placed interpreters with no legs in hotels that had no handicapped access, Driscoll said, and their prosthetics were heavy and fit poorly.
"Hatabah was a businessman. It was all about making money," Driscoll said.
Hatabah acknowledged that some patients were placed in a hotel that was not equipped to handle people with disabilities. However, he said he was forced to relocate the patients quickly by L-3, and that the facilities were upgraded as soon as possible. Hatabah also said the prosthetics that he purchased were top quality.
Jordanian doctors who reviewed medical records for some of the patients questioned some charges as high. The cost of most medical procedures in Jordan is set by a standardized fee schedule issued by the local medical association.
One record indicates that AIG paid $29,105 for two surgeries to remove stitches and other "medical expenses" for a patient whose care was being coordinated by Hatabah. Jordanian doctors who reviewed the bill said such charges would normally amount to around $3,500.
"They act like a team and they want to manage all this number of patients. This makes you suspicious," said one doctor, who did not want to be identified for fear of offending AIG.
All told, Hatabah estimated that he had overseen the care for more than 400 civilian workers from Iraq and a handful of other nearby countries such as Jordan. Hatabah said that he worked under a "mutual understanding" with AIG in which the company paid him a certain fee per patient per day. He declined to reveal specifics, but said he made at most about $100,000 a year working for AIG.
He also said that AIG paid his doctors rates far above normal for Jordan. He said that AIG officials told him that they wanted to pay top dollar to obtain the best care.
Hatabah acknowledged that neither AIG nor the federal government had accounting mechanisms to oversee the network that he created.
"Is there a guarantee that I didn’t take a percentage? No, there is no guarantee other than my word. It's my reputation. Is there a way for AIG to make sure that I didn't get a percentage if I referred to Al Khalidi? They can't."
While AIG paid for Hatabah's services, the company can seek reimbursement under a U.S. law known as the War Hazards Compensation Act.
The Act, passed in the 1940s, allows insurers to seek payment from the Labor Department for medical costs and disability payments associated with combat-injured civilian contractors. It also provides companies an additional 15% to pay for the cost of handling the claim.
As of May 2009, the department had paid AIG $5.7 million for 77 claims, according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. It is not clear why AIG has submitted so few claims for reimbursement, given that hundreds of contractors have been injured or killed in combat.
AIG officials declined to answer specific questions. Hatabah said he had no knowledge of the War Hazards Compensation Act.
"I believe strongly that these people received the best we know, the best we can and without taking sides," Hatabah said. "I do believe that AIG tried their best to give these patients good and fair treatment."
However, Hatabah's former clients have complained that he did not fully inform them of their rights. Under the law, injured workers are allowed to choose their own physician. Few Iraqi workers were aware that they had this right, and said they relied on Hatabah for care.
Rafid Kully, 32, was injured in a road accident while traveling with the U.S. Marines as an interpreter. He said the orthopedist brought in by Hatabah botched an operation on his foot, leaving him with a permanent limp. When he attempted to get treatment from other doctors, AIG denied his requests, he said.
In the interview, Hatabah said he had advised Kully against the procedure. He acknowledged that Kully’s surgery did not achieve its intended results.
Now living in North Carolina as a refugee, Kully continues to battle AIG for medical treatment.
"We thought our companies would help. We thought if you proved that something was wrong, they would fix it. But it was all about money. Nobody cared about us," Kully said. "Everybody was happy with the situation. The doctors were making millions. AIG was making millions. The companies did not have to pay a lot. Everybody was happy. But us."
Write to T. Christian Miller at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).


Tags: AIG, Contractors, Injured Contractors, Iraq

This story can be found on the web at the following address:
http://www.propublica.org/feature/for-ai...portunity/

Links



Our story on civilian interpreters was co-published with the Los Angeles Times

Interactive Chart

• Iraqi Contractors: A Casualty List - An internal L-3 document from May 2008, lists 667 cases of Iraqis injured or killed while working under contract as translators for U.S. military forces.
  

Translators in Afghanistan

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• Lost in Limbo: Injured Afghan Translators Struggle to Survive
  

Profiles

• Emad Hatahbah - War brings business to AIG's representative in Jordan.
  
• Hakee Aidan - U.S. Military Contractor Shortchanged for Life
  

Malek Hadi: Document Dive

• Malek Hadi: Proven in Battle - Malek Hadi, 25, was an Iraqi working as an interpreter with U.S. military police when a homemade explosive detonated beneath his Humvee outside Baghdad in September 2006. The blast tore off his right leg, mangled his left, and sheared off several fingers. The following records document his struggle to get the health care he was promised:
  
• An August 2008 memo from an AIG examiner recapping Hadi's case. The examiner, Candi Gainer, complains that Hadi has been uncooperative and "hijacked his care." She notes he "refused to return to Iraq" – a trip that could have resulted in his assassination. She also notes that Hadi is "clearly entitled" to benefits. But AIG withheld payment "to get the claimant to decide whether to settle his claim."
  
• These are medical reports generated in Jordan while Hadi's care was being overseen by Emad Hatabah, a Jordanian physician employed by AIG. Hadi had was given 20 days to learn to walk on his own with a prosthetic leg—a process normally allotted months in the U.S. AIG stopped payments to Hadi, not resuming them until 2008.
  
• A refugee agency sent Hadi for a psychological evaluation at the Center for Survivors of Torture when he arrived in the U.S. in July 2008. He was diagnosed for PTSD. AIG has not complied with his requests for therapy.
  
• In an email from August 2008, an AIG examiner in Dubai tells an AIG examiner in Dallas that a doctor's exam showed that Hadi needed no further treatment, contradicting another medical evaluation showing that Hadi was suffering from pain from his prosthetic limb.
  
• Hadi was seen by a doctor selected by AIG to evaluate his injury. In her initial note, she recorded the wrong leg as being amputated. She corrected the report to reflect that his right leg, not his left, had been amputated.
  

Ali Kanaan: Document Dive

• Ali Kanaan's Medical Reports and Settlement Agreement - Ali Kanaan had just graduated from high school when he signed a contract with L-3 Communications to work as an interpreter for the U.S. military for about $12,000 a year. Kanaan said he was pressured into signing a $62,000 settlement by AIG while he was hospitalized in Jordan.
  
• AIG Testimony: “Major Deficiencies” in the System - Charles Schader, AIG’s president of Worldwide claims, told Congress in June that the Defense Base Act system suffered from “major deficiencies.” He recommended a series of reforms to improve the system, including better treatment of cases involved post traumatic stress disorder.
  

Disposable Army

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• Complete Coverage on Civilian Contractors
  

Disposable Army: How We Did It
Read how ProPublica and the Los Angeles Times spent more than 18 months examining the hidden world of civilian contractor injuries.

Disposable Army: Graphics

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• Injuries and Deaths to U.S. Civilian Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan by State
  
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• Injuries and Deaths to Civilian Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan by Country
  
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• War Contractors: The Numbers on American vs. Foreign Workers in Iraq and Afghanistan
  
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• Profitable Policies for Insurers, Costly Coverage for Contractors
  

Disposable Army: Multimedia
Video: Forgotten Warriors From Abroad, by Francine Orr and Albert Lee, Los Angeles Times, June 19, 2009
Video: In Their Shoes: Foreign Contractors in Iraq, "Someone Else's War"
Tim Newman: How One Contractor Is Making a Difference, by T. Christian Miller, ProPublica, April 16, 2009
Russell Skoug: When No One Would Pay, by T. Christian Miller, ProPublica,
April 16, 2009
The Defense Base Act System: A Patchwork Program, by T. Christian Miller, ProPublica, April 16, 2009
Slideshow: Rita's Walk, by Francine Orr and Albert Lee, Los Angeles Times, April 16, 2009
GMA Video: Did AIG Neglect Injured Contractors?, ABC News, April 17, 2009
In His Own Words: John Woodson Tells His Story, ABC News, April 16, 2009

Our Partners
The original story on injured war zone contractors was co-published with the Los Angeles Times and appeared in that paper on April 17, 2009.
Two versions of the original story were co-produced with the Brian Ross Investigative Unit for ABC News' 20/20 and aired on that program on Friday, April 17, 2009.
Our stories on foreign contractors have also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and on Salon.

Document Dive

• Health Care Provided by Military Treatment Facilities to Contractors in Southwest Asia, Inspector General, Department of Defense, May 4, 2009
  
• Testimony of Shelby Hallmark, Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, Labor Department, before the House Government Reform Committee, May 15, 2008
  
• Defense Base Act Insurance: Review of Needed Cost and Implementation Issues (PDF), Government Accountability Office, April 29, 2005
  
• Defense Base Act
  

Around the Web: Private Contractors

• Someone Else's War, Lee Wang, Director/Producer
  
• Private Trauma, by Patrick Michels, The Texas Observer, March 21, 2008
  
• Iraq Convoy Got Go-Ahead Despite Threat by T. Christian Miller, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 3, 2007
  
• Contractors Outnumber Troops in Iraq by T. Christian Miller, Los Angeles Times, July 4, 2007
  
• War-Scarred Contractors Battle Red Tape by T. Christian Miller, Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2007
  
• The Battle Scars of a Private War by T. Christian Miller, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 12, 2007
  
• Anatomy of an Ambush: U.S. Troops Abandoned Me, Says Convoy Driver by the Brian Ross Investigative Unit, ABC News, Sept. 27, 2006
  
• Iraq Contractors Brave Ongoing Risks, Robert Siegel talks to T. Christian Miller, All Things Considered, NPR, May 2, 2005
  

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