Patients Encouraged to Travel for Surgical Procedures by Their Employers

The cost of many surgical procedures is now so steep that some employer health plans are willing to fly patients to a distant hospital for care. This was the basis for medical tourism which continues to this day and involves travel to another country like India or Singapore. The major difference with medical tourism was that the patients were generally uninsured and seeking lower cost procedures abroad. However and as I noted five years ago, the competitive aspect of medical tourism is now beginning to spill over to the U.S. with bids for surgical procedures solicited from hospitals in collaboration with their health plans (see: Reduced Cost of Offshore Surgical Procedures Puts Pressure on U.S. Hospitals to Compete). Here's a quote from that original note five years ago: In addition to the point about U.S. hospitals trying to match the Singapore hip and knee replacement pricing, another interesting element in this article is that Hannaford Bros, the supermarket chain, turned to Aetna to "vet the U.S. hospitals" that were willing to match the Singapore prices. I envision an interesting cottage industry developing to assess both the overseas hospitals offerings to perform various surgical procedures and the U.S. hospitals that are offering to perform the same procedures at a competitive price. Travel costs will presumably be factored into these calculations.  It is now fairly common for large companies to provide incentives for their employees t...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Pathologists Authors: Tags: Healthcare Business Healthcare Delivery Medical Consumerism Quality of Care Source Type: blogs