Medical Tourism

By Wouter Hoeberechts
8/18/2008

Experts in medical tourism, WorldMed Assist's mission is to improve lives by helping patients receive high quality medical treatment abroad at affordable prices.

Pioneertown, CA, Aug 18, 2008 - Steve Berg returned from a 15-day trip for hip resurfacing in India, a trip that only four months earlier he'd never imagined. He also never thought he'd be joining the fast growing ranks of medical tourists traveling overseas from North America for surgery they can't afford at home.

Last October, Steve Berg went to his chiropractor for an alignment to alleviate hip pain that caused him to pop up to 16 ibuprofens a day. But x-rays soon confirmed the chiropractor's initial suspicion: severe arthritis, not a chiropractic adjustment, would require surgery. The diagnosis was confirmed by an orthopedic surgeon. He was then hit with further bad news: hip replacement anywhere near home would cost about $60,000 because he was among the 47 million uninsured Americans forced to gamble that they'll never need serious medical attention.

He didn't have $60,000.

He hit the internet, and learned about an alternative to hip replacement - called hip resurfacing - that would provide him higher range of motion, shorter recovery time and the chance for future hip surgery should the arthritis cause further joint deterioration.
Berg, whose career restoring vintage motorcycles requires lots of mobility, chose Birmingham Hip Resurfacing (http://www.worldmedassist.com/Hip_Resurfacing_Surgery_India.html), but soon learned it's impossible to find an experienced doctor in the U.S. because it's a procedure only recently (2006) approved by the FDA. Berg found that several countries overseas had been resurfacing hips for a lot longer than in the U.S.

"There's a steep learning curve with this procedure, and I didn't want anyone in the U.S. practicing on me. When you look at our hospitals, you see a very high percentage of doctors from India, so I decided to go to the source!" Berg chuckled.

"First, I tried to arrange surgery in India myself, but I got so tangled up with all the options and paperwork, that I almost gave up," Berg recalled. "Finally, I landed on http://www.WorldMedAssist.com and was impressed with their information about hip resurfacing. I e-mailed them, and they immediately called me back to talk about details. I told them, "You're hired! Line up my options for India, and let's push this through as fast as we can."

With options in hand, Berg chose Wockhardt in Mumbai because their surgeon, Dr. Malhan, had done a large number of hip surgeries and is UK board certified. WorldMed Assist forwarded all Berg's records to Dr. Malhan, who then assured Berg he was a good candidate for hip resurfacing.

"WorldMed Assist quoted me a total cost of just over $10,000, including hip surgery, hotel, a two-week hospital stay and all my travel - about 1/6th the price I faced in the U.S. That price even included dental work I'd been putting off for 7 years. My decision was clear, and three weeks from the time I first contacted WorldMed Assist, I was on a plane."

While recovering from surgery in a private hospital suite complete with a refrigerator, visitor's couch, computer, cable TV and his own deluxe bathroom, Berg met several other medical travelers. About a third had made their own arrangements, as Berg had attempted to do; several others had used global healthcare facilitators like WorldMed Assist.

"But no one had as clean an experience as I did," he said. "The biggest deal is having handlers at home who line up people to lead you through the entire overseas process. I told these other patients about WorldMed Assist's service - how they expedited my visa, ensured I was met at the airport and driven directly to my hotel, and above all, how they stayed in touch with me from our very first contact throughout the entire ordeal. Those patients were all pretty amazed at the level of service compared with their own experience. WorldMed Assist handled all those loose ends I turned out to be incapable of pulling together on my own."

"Now, I'm home, and already back to work. The pain in my hip was gone a week after surgery. Before surgery, I could only stand for one hour and then I needed to lie down on a hot pad for two hours…that makes for pretty slow progress restoring these motorcycles."

About WorldMed Assist
Experts in medical tourism, WorldMed Assist's mission is to improve lives by helping patients receive high quality medical treatment abroad at affordable prices. WorldMed Assist coordinates and simplifies every aspect of care and travel. WorldMed Assist also provides medical tourism as an option for self-insured businesses seeking expanded and affordable healthcare options for employees. Hip Resurfacing in India and Belgium is significantly less expensive than in the U.S., yet delivered with the same or higher quality care and results as set by U.S. standards. Waiting times are virtually eliminated, track records are proven, and facilities are state-of-the-art. For more information, go to http:/www.worldmedassist.com
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Contact:

Wouter Hoeberechts
WorldMed Assist
Pioneertown, CA
866-999-3848 X710
whoeber@worldmedassist.com
http://www.worldmedassist.com

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August 12, 2008

The debate over U.S. health-care reform rages on. But why wait for someone else to dictate your future? You have many options -- if you're willing to take a vacation. If recovering from a medical procedure while lying on a palm-swept beach, relaxing by the hotel pool, or shopping for terrific bargains sounds good, then medical vacations may be exactly the right solution for you.

From hip replacement to heart surgery, more people are discovering the advantages of traveling abroad for their medical needs.

A big growth industry
In just the past few years, medical vacations have gone from a tiny niche market to an impressive growth story with substantial market-share gains. From Mexico to India, Costa Rica to Thailand, hospitals are taking advantage of this global trend. And U.S. companies are taking note as well. Aetna (NYSE: AET) and Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina are among the health-care companies tailoring their corporate health insurance plans to give employees the opportunity to head to India or elsewhere for surgeries such as knee replacements and the more modern, less invasive approach to hip replacement, hip resurfacing...

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May 1, 2008 By Avery Comarow

If he could have, Brad Barnum would have kissed the ground when he climbed out of the car in Ruidoso, N.M., at the end of March. But the 53-year-old building contractor had undergone major remodeling himself—and his new knee and two new hips ruled out kneeling for a few more weeks. Still, he was ecstatic. More than two months after leaving for the hospital, he was home, and he had afforded the otherwise unaffordable. By having the work done in India, at Wockhardt Hospital in Bangalore, he'd gotten his new joints for just $23,000. Even after adding about $5,000 for airfare, passport, visa, and incidentals, the total was nearly 80 percent less than the $125,000 or more he easily could have been charged by a U.S. hospital. And that bill wouldn't have included physician fees and "ancillary charges."

Barnum is one of thousands of Americans—estimates range from an ultraconservative 5,000 to 500,000 annually if minor procedures are counted—who are leaving the States for surgery when they have to come up with funds themselves. They may be self-employed or work for a small business and lack health insurance, for example, or their procedure may not be covered. More than 1 in 4 workers earning at least $60,000 a year went without insurance in 2006, according to a Census Bureau survey; too well-off to be eligible for medical assistance, they can often wring tens of thousands of dollars out of hospital "rack rates" by going abroad. Some employers and big insurers like UnitedHealth and Blue Cross and Blue Shield are so intrigued by "medical tourism" that they're beginning to sniff for signs that it might be smart to cover it. "I was totally amazed not just at the quality of the medical care but at the quality of the service," says David Boucher, an assistant vice president of healthcare services at BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina who has visited many facilities abroad. "The initial driver may be price, but patients' positive experiences will do a lot to advance the movement."

So far, there's been mostly talk, with little action from employers and health carriers. In fact, the first verified case of major surgery abroad as an employee benefit took place only earlier this year. (The patient reportedly paid nothing out of pocket for a knee replacement—in fact, the company, a North Carolina manufacturer, paid him a tidy sum for saving so much money.) Wockhardt, where the procedure was done, won't name the company.

Meanwhile, patients are finding their way abroad on their own. Wockhardt's hospitals in Bangalore and Bombay operated on about 850 U.S. patients in 2007, more than double the 2006 total. In Thailand, Bangkok's Bumrungrad Hospital says it treats more than 38,000 Americans a year—a somewhat inflated figure that represents "patient encounters," not individual patients, and includes expatriates. Other hospitals in India and Thailand, as well as centers in Singapore, are actively courting Americans, and the governments of South Korea and Taiwan are about to launch campaigns.

Low-budget dentistry, Botox-ing, lipo, and other cosmetic work have for years drawn Americans into Mexico and to other Latin American countries. But the growth in serious elective surgery halfway around the world is new. Josef Woodman, who publishes the Patients Beyond Borders series of guidebooks to finding good care, thinks about 50,000 patients a year leave the country for major noncosmetic elective procedures such as joint replacement, coronary artery bypass, new or repaired heart valves, or back repair.

Many, like Barnum, do the legwork on their own. But concierge services like MedRetreat.com and IndUShealth.com are multiplying, to help with lists of potential hospitals, appointment scheduling, arranging airport pickup and drop-off, and general hand-holding. (Information from Woodman's annual hospital survey has been incorporated into the World Hospital Finder, a U.S. News search tool for people who are seeking care abroad.)

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June 2008

Link http://www.nbc11.com/msnbchealth/16748813/detail.html

Timmi Ryerson, a San Diego stock market analyst, says her left hip actually works again, thanks to an orthopedic specialist in India.

...What's new about these procedures is not the exotic locales the three chose, but the way they paid for their far-flung surgeries.

While at least 150,000 Americans travel abroad for medical care every year, according to the American Medical Association, Ryerson, Mason and Davies represent a small but growing category of medical tourist: patients whose insurance companies have agreed to foot at least part of the bill.

"I think that's the solution to our health care crisis," said Davies, 53, whose company plan, Delta Dental, maxed out his dental benefit, about $2,500, toward the $30,000 he spent to repair damage caused by years of grinding his teeth, a procedure that would have cost an estimated $80,000 in the United States.

Increasingly, some of the nation's larger employers and leading health insurers agree.

Once the province of the poor and uninsured, medical tourism is gaining attention of industry giants such as CIGNA, Aetna and Blue Cross/Blue Shield, who say they either have begun or are considering pilot programs that provide limited coverage for foreign care. One Montana firm, Employee Benefit Management Services Inc., recently began offering medial tourism plans to its 120 self-insured clients in the Northwest...
 

"I just think that others need to be aware that they are able to have a safe procedure done out of the country for a price at a third the cost," she said.

Ryerson, 61, said her private Blue Cross plan paid 80 percent of a $7,000 hip resurfacing surgery in Chennai, India, that would have been about $55,000 in the U.S. - if she could get it at all.

In 2006, the hip resurfacing device necessary for her surgery had just been approved for U.S. use by the federal Food and Drug Administration and not many domestic doctors had experience with it. Dr. Vijay Bose, her U.K.-certified surgeon in India, had performed the surgery more than 1,100 times.

"Doctors here didn't know what they didn't know and I didn't want to be a guinea pig," she said.

While she was there, Ryerson also had cosmetic surgery and dental work done at her own expense...
 

Farmer has hip op in India

Link  To Original  Story

LAURA DEVLIN

18 March 2008

Stuart Agnew - operation in India

Farmer Stuart Agnew knew that major surgery was on the cards as his hip became increasingly more painful during a busy lambing season.

But for the 58-year-old, being at the mercy of NHS waiting lists was a daunting thought as he tried to negotiate his way through a hectic farming calendar.

Eventually, the pain became so intense that he felt forced to take action and sought out private treatment halfway across the world in India.

Yet there was an unexpected bonus awaiting him when he discovered he could not only have the surgery at a time to fit in with the day-to-day business of running the farm, but save himself £5,000 in the process.

Mr Agnew, who represents the county on the NFU's national council, became so frustrated at struggling around his farm at Helhoughton, near Fakenham, that he searched the internet for an overseas surgeon and braved a nine-hour flight to Bombay.

Operation Vacation -Big Savings Have More Overseas Travelers Mixing Surgery With Sightseeing

 

By Cindy Loose Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, September 9, 2007

 

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On learning he needed heart surgery last spring, Larry Shaw's first question was: How much?

 

The surgeon's fee, between $1,500 and $2,000, was within Shaw's means as a self-insured businessman. But the angioplasty, including placement of a thin tube in a clogged artery, would require a one-night hospital stay. He called the closest major medical center to his Dallas home. Estimated charge: $47,000, not including anesthesia.

 

Shaw's next calls were to Thailand and India.

 

The price at Bangkok's private Bumrungrad International Hospital: $6,400, including a two-night stay, surgeon's fees, anesthesiologist and drugs. The Apollo hospital in New Delhi: $4,600.

 

A few weeks later, in late June, Shaw and his wife, Kathy, are more than 9,000 miles from home, walking the marble floors of a Bangkok hospital lobby that looks like the entrance to a newly renovated Hilton. Shaw, by economic necessity, is joining an ever-growing trend: medical travel, sometimes referred to as medical tourism.

 

The reputation of outstanding U.S. hospitals has long drawn wealthy patients from around the world. But today, traffic also heads in the opposite direction. It's a trend that quietly has been expanding well beyond facelifts, tummy tucks and dental crowns to embrace all sorts of non-emergency treatments.

 

Most American patients are seeking significantly lower prices. But some go abroad for treatments not yet available or not yet widely practiced in the United States. Others head overseas for the personalized service emphasized by high-end private hospitals working to appeal to an international clientele.

 

"There is a fierce, pitched battle for medical tourists, who are the highest-value tourists in terms of how long they stay and money spent," says Ruben Toral, marketing director of Bumrungrad Hospital. "Governments in Southeast Asia and now in Dubai view it as an important extension of regular tourism."

 

Medical travelers logged an estimated 19 million trips and spent $20 billion in 2005; the numbers are expected to more than double by 2010, according to Tourism Research and Marketing, a London consulting firm. Thailand last year served 1.4 million medical tourists, including 65,000 Americans, some of whom were already living abroad. Singapore and India also have a strong network of hospitals drawing foreign tourists, as does Malaysia.

 

Other parts of Asia rushing to develop medical tourism: South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines. Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico also attract Americans seeking cosmetic surgery or dentistry, but "the infrastructure isn't in place for extensive, invasive procedures," says Josef Woodman, author of a how-to guide called "Patients Beyond Borders: Everybody's Guide to Affordable, World-Class Medical Tourism."

 

A medical tourist, as opposed to a medical traveler, will use some of his or her savings on medical care to enjoy a holiday abroad. Take Dana Updyke, 62, of Los Angeles, who was recently on a ferry between Phuket and the Phi Phi Islands. She had come to Thailand several weeks earlier for a hip resurfacing, a less-invasive alternative to a hip replacement that is not yet widely practiced in the United States. After recuperating in a five-star hotel on the beach, a stone's throw from a satellite hospital Bumrungrad operates in Phuket, she was ready to move from one Thai tourist destination to an even more exotic one.

 

Some international hospitals broker deals with resorts. The Apollo Chennai in India, for example, staffs the ritzy Taj Fisherman's Cove on the Bay of Bengal with an intern and nurses prepared to do routine follow-up care.

 

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Many getting medical care abroad

By Jessica L. Anderson
Kiplinger's Personal Finance
Published: September 16, 2007

 

The reason to go overseas for surgery is simple: You could pay a fraction of what you'd pay in the United States.
A hip replacement stateside can run between $44,000 and $63,000, vs. about $12,000 to $18,000 abroad, even with travel and hotel costs included. Although prices vary depending on your destination and the type of surgery, it isn't unusual to save as much as 80 percent.

Greg Scandlen, president of Consumers for Health Care Choices, says the best candidates for overseas treatment are individuals who lack health insurance or have high-deductible health plans. People who are uninsured "pay out of their own pocket regardless of where the surgery takes place," says Scandlen.

Plus, says Jonathan Edelheit, vice president of insurance group OptiMed Health/United Group Programs, foreign hospitals often rival those found in the United States.

No doubt Michael Hornholtz would agree. After having surgery to straighten a broken nose in 1974, Hornholtz, now 66, experienced chronic nerve pain. For years, he searched for a doctor who would correct the problem. After a friend suggested that he might have better luck abroad, Hornholtz contacted PlanetHospital, a medical-tourism company.

PlanetHospital (800-243-0172; www.planethospital.

com) found him a doctor in Singapore who would perform nasal surgery to repair the nerve damage. The company made his travel arrangements and had a staff member tend to him from the time he landed in Singapore until he returned home.

Two weeks after his surgery, Hornholtz was thrilled with the outcome. Because he couldn't find a surgeon in the United States, price wasn't an issue. But, he says, the total cost, which he estimates was about $12,000, was well worth it. Hornholtz paid all his expenses directly to the providers, from the travel arrangements to the hospital and doctor. PlanetHospital charged a $395 concierge fee.

If you intend to go overseas for medical care and are making arrangements on your own, check ahead and check credentials. Ask whether the hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission International, the international arm of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the major U.S. accrediting body.

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Hip Surgery in Belgium Video

 

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Low-cost foreign care begins to take offBy Susan Deutschle Business First of Columbus Business First of Columbus Updated: 8:00 p.m. ET July 29, 2007

 

There's a quiet revolution slowly building momentum in the health-care industry that could potentially lower the cost of employer-sponsored medical plans over the next decade. A new phenomenon called medical tourism confirms that globalization is finally affecting the health-care industry.

 

A growing number of uninsured and under-insured medical patients are traveling to foreign countries for services and procedures that are significantly less expensive than what's charged by American hospitals and clinics. This new competition has some experts predicting that natural market forces will eventually cut costs here.

 

"I don't think medical tourism is a near-term solution to the health-care problem in America, but I do believe this won't be seen as a novelty in another five to 10 years," said Robert DeWitt, a health-care attorney with Columbus-based Squire Sanders & Dempsey LLP. "Employers could end up saving a lot of money once this catches on more."

 

It's called medical tourism because a patient can receive medical care while experiencing the excitement and adventure of traveling to an exotic locale - although critics are more likely to characterize it as an opportunity to have an operation and witness regime change at the same time...

 

..."The U.S. accounts for one-third of health-care spending globally, but ranks 37th in quality of care. That's not a hard record to beat," DeWitt said.

 

The potential market for medical tourism is staggering in light of the fact that more than 15 percent of Americans are uninsured, according to 2005 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. That's almost 45 million prospective tourists from one country, and doesn't include the millions of underinsured people who have minimal coverage with high deductibles.

 

Josef Woodman, the author of a medical tourism guidebook, "Patients Beyond Borders," estimates that more than 150,000 Americans traveled to foreign countries for medical care last year. He expects that number to double in 2007.

 

Another author, David Hancock, who wrote "The Complete Medical Tourist," estimates global medical tourism will evolve into a $40 billion-a-year industry by 2010...

 

...Wall says that there isn't a lot of buzz yet about medical tourism among his health-care colleagues.

 

"But physicians certainly aren't immune to worrying about competition," Wall said.

 

Some employers and health plans are already offering attractive incentives to patients who accept treatment overseas, including cash rewards, first-class round-trip airfare and recuperative stays at luxury resorts. Blue Cross/Blue Shield of South Carolina, for example, now covers treatments provided by a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand.

 

DeWitt says that progressive American health-care organizations are looking at ways to engage in the concept.

 

"Some are expanding their operations to other countries, and others are trying to affiliate with foreign hospitals," DeWitt said.

 

There are still a lot of issues to be sorted out before medical tourism becomes mainstream, including legal matters such as liability and coordination of care for chronic cases.

 

"It's a major paradigm shift, that's for sure," Wall said.

 

© 2007 Business First of Columbus URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20030999/

 

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Medical Tourism Takes Flight

 

By Kathleen Doheny, HealthDay Reporter

 

FRIDAY, July 6 (HealthDay News) -- Soaring U.S. medical costs are causing many Americans to take to the skies on "medical tourism" junkets, looking for high-quality yet low-priced health care at foreign clinics.

 

In many cases, patients get exactly what they are looking for, but experts also warn that the booming industry does have some risks.

 

"My own advice would be to look carefully at the accreditation of the hospital and consider the nature of the procedure. Are you sure it is the procedure you need? And is it done well at the place you are going?" said Dr. Ann Marie Kimball, a professor of epidemiology and health services at the University of Washington School of Public Health, in Seattle.

 

The surge in medical tourism over the past decade is being driven by rising U.S. health-care costs and growing numbers of uninsured or under-insured Americans, said Josef Woodman, the author of a guidebook on the topic called Patients Beyond Borders.

 

Almost 45 million Americans, or slightly more than 15 percent of the population, are currently uninsured, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics from 2005, the latest available.

 

 

Woodman estimated that more than 150,000 Americans traveled abroad for health care in 2006. The number is projected to double in 2007, he said.

 

...Even when patients select and book medical care abroad through a health travel agent, they must remain critical, informed health-care consumers, Woodman said.

 

The main thing a patient needs to do, he said, is check out the accreditation of the hospital and the credentials of the surgeon.

 

Spread of disease is another potential concern, said Kimball, who is also director of the APEC Asia Pacific Emerging Infectious Disease Network and author of Risky Trade: Infectious Disease in the Era of Global Trade.

 

"Medical tourism is obviously a route for pathogen spread," Kimball said, noting that different hospitals in different regions may have different types of flora. "The extent to which it's a problem versus a theoretical concern is as yet not known," she said. "I can't issue a blank 'go' or 'don't go,'" she added.

 

Kimball's advice: Look carefully at the accreditation of the hospital concerned and do your homework before you board the plane. "Check out the number of surgeries done, the success rates," Woodman added. It's also key to ask the surgeon you talk to if he or she will perform the operation, not an assistant.

 

Kimball said she urges potential medical tourists to talk it over with their own physician. As the concept and the practice of medical tourism has evolved, she said, a physician is not likely to automatically rule out the idea.

 

More information

 

There's more on medical tourism at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons...

 

SOURCES: Josef Woodman, author, Patients Beyond Borders, (Healthy Travel Media, 2007); Ann Marie Kimball, M.D., professor, epidemiology and health services, University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine; director, APEC Asia Pacific Emerging Infections Network, Seattle, and author, Risky Trade (Ashgate Publishing, 2006); American Society of Plastic Surgeons, briefing paper

 

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