ARE MEDICAL VISAS being abused as a way to end-run the new anti-terror restrictions on immigration? Sydney Smith points to a piece from The New York Sun that suggests the answer is yes:

As Mr. Fishman of Sloan-Kettering said of the INS and the State Department, “There’s no cross-collaboration between the two of them now. Should someone be approved for a visa and not keep an appointment, we don’t know what happens to them afterward.”

In the 1990s, facing a managed care revolution that restricted the flow of patients, hospitals in New York City and around the country began aggressive marketing overseas, creating alliances with far-flung medical centers from Bahrain to Bangkok, in an effort to lure patients.

The efforts paid off and soon foreign patients nation-wide became a $2 billion to $3 billion a year industry, said Mr. O’Kelly. New York Hospital was particularly aggressive in pursuing foreign patients and created a division that attracted patients such as Arab businessmen, who were able to pay cash for high-tech medical intervention.

But as the nation’s immigration net tightens, Mr. O’Kelly fears that his program is being exploited and said he had seen a worrying increase in treatment seekers from countries such as Pakistan. He added that if terrorists should strike again, “The last thing I want to do is wind up on Nightline explaining how it happened.”

We don’t want that either.