| Page 4 of 4 < |
Businesses May Move Health Care Overseas
Some experts predict greater access to options like these will eventually drive more people to take control of their own health care.
Medical tourism facilitators like California-based PlanetHospital are banking on it, already working to make the journey less stressful for patients traveling abroad by arranging everything from visas and airport pickup to sightseeing.
  Indian doctor Praveen Chandra checks on an Americam patient Greg Goodell from Iowa after a his successful heart operation at a hospital in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Oct. 21, 2006.With an estimated 45 million uninsured or underinsured Americans, some 500,000 trekked overseas last year for medical treatment, according to the National Coalition on Health Care. Asian hospitals have long been swarmed by medical tourists looking for tummy tucks and face lifts, but now many of the marble, resort-style facilities are gaining reputations for big-ticket procedures including heart surgery, knee and back operations. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup) (Manish Swarup - AP) |
Many doctors working in facilities catering to medical tourists are trained abroad, often in the U.S. or Europe. About 100 foreign hospitals have been approved by the international arm of the Chicago-based Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, which also accredits American hospitals.
Six countries in Asia have accredited facilities, including Bangkok's Bumrungrad; five in India, with three belonging to the Apollo Hospital group; and 11 in Singapore.
The Max Super Speciality Hospital where Gilmore had her surgery on Oct. 10, is working to become accredited, but she said she felt comfortable from the very beginning. Even if her boss had refused to pay for the surgery, she said she likely would have made the two-day flight on her own because her insurance would never have paid to fix the pre-existing condition.
"It's either that, or do it in the States for $28,000 to $40,000," she said. In the U.S. do you not sign forms? They're not responsible. The risk of it didn't really weigh on me."
In addition to saving thousands _ the three-week trip totaled about $12,000, including the surgery, travel and lodging for two and a tour of the Taj Mahal _ she also underwent a new technique just approved this year in the U.S.
Instead of total hip replacement, which limits mobility and requires the top of the femur to be cut off and a long shaft inserted, hip resurfacing uses only a small ball-and-socket device that enables patients to maintain their flexibility for activities like yoga, praying or even racing horses.
Gilmore's Indian physician, Dr. S.K.S. Marya, chief surgeon at the Max Institute of Orthopedics & Joint Replacement, has performed some 150 hip resurfacing operations over the past two years. About one American comes to him for the surgery each week, and Gilmore is just the latest in a growing number of satisfied patients who plan to keep their passports renewed.
"Every day I feel better. I can get around on one crutch now," said Gilmore, who plans to be back in the saddle within six months and out selling ranches soon after returning home. "I don't have near the pain. I can already move my leg a lot more than I could before. I can actually go up the stairs without pain, that's something I couldn't do before."
____
AP Business Writer Malcolm Foster reported from Bangkok, and AP Medical Writer Margie Mason reported from New Delhi. AP writers Tom Breen in Charleston, W.Va., and Teresa Cerojano in Manila contributed to this report.
____
On the Net:
http:/
