A Doral company is suing the Turks and Caicos government, alleging the distressed British colony has not paid $16 million in South Florida medical bills for its citizens.

The lawsuit was filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court by Southern Health Network, which had a contract to arrange healthcare for seriously ill Turks and Caicos citizens who couldn't get proper treatment in the islands.

''I've gone down there twice personally and appealed to the new premier,'' said Henry Givens, president of Southern Health. ``And they just haven't responded.''

The government has yet to answer the lawsuit in court. A woman reached by phone at the governor's office said Friday no one was available for comment.

The dispute illustrates the downside of South Florida's aggressive attempts to expand its healthcare industry through international medical tourism: When payments aren't made, it can be hard to collect across borders.

The Turks and Caicos, which consists of eight inhabited islands, has been in financial and political turmoil for months. A premier, known for extravagant spending, resigned in March amid corruption accusations, and a commissioner appointed by the United Kingdom has been trying to sort things out.

That turmoil has reverberated through the healthcare business on the mainland. Baptist Health South Florida reports the Turks and Caicos has paid part of its debt, but still owes several million dollars.

''We expect the government to continue making payments and fulfill its obligation to pay for the care we've rendered to their citizens,'' said Baptist spokeswoman Jo Baxter. The system is not accepting new Turks and Caicos patients ``until the payment schedule has been approved by the T & C government. We expect this is to happen soon.''

Miami Children's Hospital reports that Turks and Caicos owes it $125,000.

Two healthcare providers have sued Southern Health, complaining about lack of payment. John A. I. Grossman, a South Dade plastic surgeon, is demanding more than $50,000 for surgery he performed last summer on a 1-year-old girl. His contract with Southern Health specified that he was to get 70 percent of billied charges. If there was a delay of more than 60 days in paying his claim, he was to get 100 percent.

SkyeMed Pharmacy and Infusion Services in Pompano Beach is suing for $76,000 for 46 unpaid claims.

Southern Health's response is that its contracts specified it would arrange for the providers to get paid, but didn't itself guarantee to pay the claims.

Givens said Friday one reason he sued the island government is that there are ''200 or 300 vendors out there that are owed'' money, and he didn't want all of them coming after his small company.

His lawsuit states only that he is seeking damages in excess of $15,000, but in a press release, Givens said that, put together, he and the vendors are owed more than $16 million.

Southern Health is owed more than $100,000, Givens said. After Hurricane Ike slammed the islands last fall, ''we chartered an aircraft and took the more seriously ill patients, especially the ones on dialysis. We kept them here in Miami for a couple of weeks,'' putting many of them up at hotels and seeing they received treatment. Givens said the government had yet to pay Southern Health for those services.

On April 1, according to the court file, Turks and Caicos Director of Health Services Rufus W. Ewing sent Southern Health Network a letter terminating the ``formal and informal relationship.''

He promised to ``continue to work to address these issues expeditiously.''

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