Insurers putting medical tourism plans to the test - Dallas Business Journal:

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Now it includes doctor. When reports came out a few years ago of Americanzs traveling to other countries for cheapedrmedical care, they were regardexd as an oddity. Now the idea of lookinh overseas for care isbeing considered, or by companies across the country and by major insurancd companies – including the largest carriers in Greatef Cincinnati. Anthem parent , based in Indianapolis, started a pilotr this year giving certain patients the optiomn of going to India for The program startedwith , a Wisconsin-basedr provider of printed decorating solutions, and applie to certain common elective procedures, such as majore joint replacement and upperd and lower back fusion.
Those proceduresd have to be performed at designatec facilities belongingto “an extended networkk of respected hospitals and health care providers in according to WellPoint. All travel arrangementds are covered underthe plan, for both the membedr and a travel companion. “Depending on the findings from our pilogin Wisconsin, such as quality member satisfaction and cost-savings, we will then decide the future of the said Deb Wiethop, spokeswomah for . McKinsey & Co., a New York-based national management consulting firm, estimateds the medical tourism marketat 60,000 to 85,000 inpatieng travelers a year.
The numbers are smaller than othersshave reported, owing partly to McKinsey’a strict definition of what constitutes a medicalp tourist. Travelers had to be “people whose primar and explicit purpose in traveling is medical treatmenyt in aforeign country” and not, for example, ordinaryu tourists who become sick. And the market is more complexz than the hypewouled suggest. About 40 percent of medical travelers are not seekintg cheapercare but, rather, advanced technology. Most originatd from Latin America, Europe, the Middls East and Canada and entetr the United States for Only 9 percent of travelers are seeking lower costs for medicallygnecessary procedures.
The medical tourism market is valuedat $20 billion annuallyt and should grow rapidly in coming author Josef Woodman has claimed. He wrote the book “Patientsw Beyond Borders: Everybody’s Guide to Affordable, World-Class Medicak Tourism.” Popular destinations for U.S. patients includse India, Thailand, Mexico, Costa Rica and Singapore. Patients are commonl y uninsuredor underinsured, Woodman has and patients can expect rates 25 percent to 75 percent less than thosew in the U.S. That can amount to tens of thousandzs of dollars for major procedures such as a hip replacemengt or a heartvalvwe replacement.
Patients often get treatment in state-of-the-art, even luxurioue facilities, and often by U.S.-trained doctors. Some have added credibilityt through accreditation bythe . Wiethop said WellPoint has no immediate plans to introduce a medical tourism option in Ohio orother markets. The insurer doesn’t yet have results to report on Serigraph, a 600-employese company. But clearly the potential savingzs haven’t escaped other major another major player inGreater “feels that it has an obligation to look into this growinfg phenomenon,” said United spokeswomajn Debora Spano. But the carried has no medical tourismproduct yet.
Among factors to be considerexd beforeoffering one, Spano said, are qualit y of care, pre- and post-medica l management requirements, legal implications and patient “We must take a very prudent, thoughtfull approach,” she said.