An increasing number of US employers are embracing the medical tourism concept. However, the pace of change is slow. The case study most mentioned is Hannaford Brothers, a supermarket chain based in Maine, with 27,000 employees in five states. Two years ago, the company offered to send its employees needing knee or hip replacements to Singapore. The medical costs would be so low that the company would pay the employee’s insurance co-payment of about $2,500 and the travel expenses for the employee and a spouse or companion.
The move attracted the attention of hospitals in Maine and Boston, and they offered to match the Singapore price. Hannaford recently said that in the last two years, ten employees have had operations. The twist is that none of the employees went overseas; all 10 had the surgery performed in the United States. A flight from Boston to Singapore takes between 24 and 30 hours… hardly ideal for a person recovering from major surgery.
So, for many Americans the distances involved in travelling to Asia for treatment deter them from opting for surgery overseas. But the threat of Americans seeking care abroad is prodding some domestic providers to offer discounts much larger than they would under typical third-party reimbursement. Employers are embracing medical tourism, but only within the US.
In March, Mobile Surgery International celebrated the first case of an American patient and his American surgeon both travelling to another country in order to carry out a successful, high quality, surgical procedure of the patient’s choice at a cost the patient could afford. The rise of domestic medical tourism was shown when October saw the first domestic US mobile surgery case involving a patient from South Carolina, a surgical team from Florida and an operating room in Kansas.MSI identified excess operating room capacity in Kansas to which it sent the surgical team and the patient. The patient had uneventful surgery at a location he could reach more easily than a foreign country and at a price he could afford. As with foreign cases, domestic mobile surgery overcame economic and geographic barriers to treatment choice and quality. Galichia Heart Hospital expects more business from out of state patients through a facilities agreement with Florida surgeon Arnon Krongrad of Mobile Surgery International.
The Kansas hospital Galichia Heart Hospital is cutting rates for uninsured patients and those with high deductibles. The moves are an extension of the domestic medical tourism programme that it is now promoting online with a video. Stephen Harris of Galichia says the U.S. hospital pricing system makes it economically feasible to discount rates and still make money. For decades, he adds, hospitals typically have collected 35 to 40 percent of their charges from insurers. And they've billed uninsured patients for 100 percent of the charges. Discounted prices for those without insurance will be about half of what has been charged. Galichia hopes to pick up more medical tourism traffic from January through a contract it has with AWAC, a medical management company based in Georgia.AWAC works with 20 third-party administrators of self-insured health plans, acting as their medical directors. As part of its contract, it will promote Galichia's medical tourism program.
Several U.S. medical facilities have started medical tourism programmes of their own, hoping to draw foreign patients as well as Americans who are uninsured or who have high-deductible insurance plans or health savings accounts. The Surgery Center of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City, advertises flat-rate discounted fees for outpatient procedures.
