New Twist on Medical Tourism; American Surgeon Travels to Cancun Hospital

I have posted a number of blog notes over the years about medical tourism. The options when seeking medical care abroad have taken many twists and turns (see, for example:Medical Tourism Business Model in Thailand Extends to Airport Facilities;A Competitive Threat to U.S. Healthcare in the Cayman Islands?). The latest twist entails having an American orthopedic surgeon travel to a Mexican hospital to perform the operation (see:A Mexican Hospital, an American Surgeon, and a $5,000 Check (Yes, a Check)), Below is an excerpt from an article on this topic:For...[her knee replacement],...[Donna Ferguson] would not only receive free care, but would receive a check when she got home.The hospital costs of the American medical system are so high that it made financial sense for both a highly trained orthopedist from Milwaukee and a patient from Mississippi to leave the country and meet at an upscale private Mexican hospital for the surgery. Ms. Ferguson gets her health coverage through her husband ’s employer, Ashley Furniture Industries. The cost to Ashley was less than half of what a knee replacement in the United States would have been.That ’s why its employees and dependents who use this option have no out-of-pocket co-pays or deductibles for the procedure; in fact, they receive a $5,000 payment from the company, and all their travel costs are covered. Dr. Parisi, [the orthopedic surgeon] who spent less than 24 hours in Canc ún, was paid $2,700, or three times what he would h...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Cost of Healthcare Healthcare Innovations Medical Consumerism Quality of Care Source Type: blogs