Can You Save On Your Medical Bills With Medical Tourism?
Nowadays you may have come across stories about the increasing phenomenon of medical and health tourism. Patients move around the globe to find medical procedures for getting an appropriate solution to their health related issues. One must have health insurance since traveling to a foreign country seems like paying less if there’s a real chance for good quality and affordable healthcare.
Let’s see what exactly medical and health tourism means for an individual?
The term “medical tourism” refers to people traveling outside of their own countries for medical care, surgical procedures and dental treatment. Historically, medical tourists were often wealthy and affluent patients seeking treatments or procedures that were unavailable in their own country or looking to combine cosmetic procedures with some rest and relaxation in an exotic locale.
However, recently, increasing numbers of less-affluent patients have begun traveling abroad in an effort to control the costs of their medical care. As the quality of medical facilities and care in other countries become comparable to those of the U.S., medical tourism has become a viable option for some patients seeking to cut their medical costs. For example, surgery in a hospital in Singapore or Latin America may cost a quarter of what an American hospital my charge. Likewise, an Indian hospital may charge $10,000 for the open-heart surgery that would cost $30,000 in the UK and $100,000 in the U.S. Considering the potential savings, it is not surprising that some patients find it much cheaper to pay the travel costs and travel abroad for their care.
In addition, because of the smaller demand for health services in other countries, wait times for procedures may be significantly shorter than in the U.S. In many cases, a major surgery can be scheduled within a few weeks and sometimes even days, a far cry from the situation in most major American hospitals. Some of the most popular destinations for medical tourism are Singapore, Thailand, Indian, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and South Africa.
Who is a Good Candidate for Medical Tourism?
While there is no one-size-fits-all answer to that question, here are some questions to consider before you jump on the medical tourism bandwagon:
• Are You Healthy Enough to Travel? Before you hop the next plane to India, consider whether you are well enough to travel in the first place. Most hospitals serving international medical tourists are half a world away from the United States, and would require long stretches of air travel, travel connections, and immersion in a foreign culture.
• Are the Financial Savings Worth It? When you consider the costs of travel, lodging, recovery and follow-up, is it still worth the trouble of traveling overseas to receive treatment?
•Do you Have Health Insurance? In calculating your potential savings, consider whether you have any health insurance coverage for the treatment or procedure. If you have health insurance, it is unlikely that it will cover foreign treatment.
• Can you Research the Proposed Physician(s) and Facility? Before you put yourself in the hands of any physician, you need to do your homework. Agencies that specialize in medical tourism can help, but it is up to you to find out everything you can about the proposed doctors and facilities and to feel comfortable with them.
What are the Risks of Medical Tourism?
Medical tourism may be a good way to save money, in many cases a lot of money, but it is not without risks. If you are considering medical tourism, you should carefully consider these risks before traveling abroad:
Licensing and Certification. Most importantly, it is important to consider that other countries may not regulate professional licensing and certification as closely as the United States. As with all treatments and procedures, it is important to inspect the credentials of any physician treating you. If your physician claims to be U.S. trained and/or certified, you should be able to find confirm this information fairly easily from whatever organization he or she claims affiliation with.
You should also check to see whether the hospital and facilities you are considering have received accreditation similar to what you may find in the United States. For Americans, the best-known accreditation group is the Joint Commission International (JCI), the international arm of the Joint Commission in the U.S., a non-profit organization that accredits U.S. hospitals. Many hospitals which serve international patients have obtained JCI accreditation in an effort to attract more American patients.
Limited Legal Recourse if Things Go Wrong. In the event that the worse case scenario occurs and something does go wrong, you should also consider that you may have very limited legal options. One reason why the cost of medical care in the United States is so expensive is because of the high costs of the malpractice insurance that American physicians carry. Although you can benefit from the lower costs of foreign care if it is successful, if things go wrong, you may find yourself in a foreign country without any ability to seek compensation for malpractice. Even if you are able to win a malpractice case, the doctor or hospital may not have the money, resources or insurance to cover the financial damages that are awarded to you.
You Need Sufficient Follow-Up and Recovery Time. Some hospitals that specialize in medical tourism are in the business of getting patients in and out quickly. If that is the case, you may not receive the follow-up care necessary for your treatment.
You may have to find that follow-up care on your own at home, which may be a pricey proposition as well as an inconvenient on.
In addition, you need to be very mindful of having sufficient recovery time after receiving treatment. Traveling too soon after surgery can cause serious complications. If you fly, the combination of high altitudes and sitting for long periods of time can cause blood clots and pulmonary embolisms, which are both potentially fatal. Less seriously, you risk swelling and infections. If you have surgery in a foreign country, make sure you do your homework on what kind of recovery time is required before you risk travel.
Exposure to Disease. As with whenever you travel to a foreign country, you do risk exposure to diseases to which you have not built up any immunity. Some countries, such as India, Malaysia, or Thailand have very different infectious disease-related epidemiology to Europe and North America. Exposure to diseases without having built up natural immunity can be a hazard for weakened individuals, specifically with respect to gastrointestinal diseases (e.g. Hepatitis A, amoebic dysentery, paratyphoid) which could weaken progress, mosquito-transmitted diseases, influenza, and tuberculosis
Medical Tourism and Health Tourism consultancy are offered by Global Benefit Options. GBO is a skilled medical tourism consultant with wide industry relationships with, brokers and hospitals globally. For more information visit http://www.globalbenefitoptions.com
