Health-Care Services Common to Medical Tourism

Posted on 6 February 2012 in Uncategorized by admin

For one reason or the other, individuals travel across international borders to access health services that are available in their destination countries. Similarly, medical tourism could also be referred to as the practice whereby some physicians, doctors or health-care providers are itinerant travelers to different parts of the world to deliver health-care services to potential patients.

It is worthy of note that the health services that medical tourists commonly seek to have include dental surgery, joint (hip or knee) replacement surgeries, cosmetic surgeries, cardiac surgery, psychiatry, alternative treatments, in-vitro fertilization and freezing embryos for retro-production, and surrogate pregnancy.

Countries Associated with Medical Tourism

It is worth stating again that one of the major causes of medical tourism is the relative cost of undergoing a certain medical procedure. For instance, carrying out a liver transplant surgery costs about $250,000 in United States compared to that of Taiwan which costs about $90,000 USD. Another major reason is the lack of adequate health care facilities and services.

As a result, more of medical tourists come from places like Europe, the US, Canada, Japan and the Middle East. Health service providers from such countries stand the chances of losing billions of dollars revenue.

In the same vein, the countries where medical tourists usually consider for medical procedures include India, Jordan, Malaysia, South Africa, Thailand, South Korea, Tunisia, Argentina, Israel, Ukraine, and New Zealand.

Potential Risk of Medical Tourism

It is quite vital for medical tourists to be well aware of the risks involved in seeking health care in some other countries. This will help to determine what could be done so as to minimize or eliminate the risk factors of medical tourism.

1. Low level of expertise of some health-care service providers. There have been cases where some even practice outside of their field. This is highly risky.
2. Low health-care standards. Some countries other than First World have low standards in the health sector.
3. Lack of proper Health Insurance Scheme in some Medical Procedures.
4. The possible risk of post-operation complications after tourists’ return to home countries.
5. Lack of physical contact with the physician after medical care for essential medical check-up.

Factors Responsible for Medical tourism

1. High cost of health-care service. In fact, one of the major reason why medical tourist travel from First World countries to other places is as result of the high cost of health-care services.

2. Convenience and speed. In countries like US and UK unlike in some other countries, many health care services require long waiting times before the medical procedures are embarked on.

3. There is advanced medical technology in many countries today. Many countries are taking advantage of medical tourism by providing high standards of health care services.

4. Lack of local health-care services on certain medical problems. For instance, a medical tourist may seek help for in-vitro reproduction in a foreign country if it is not available in his own country.

From the foregoing, the views held by individuals about medical tourism are not the same at all. Some people from First World countries see it as a risky medical alternative. However, since many countries are now taking to advanced medical technology, some still consider that it is worth doing.

http://www.aetda.com/some-facts-on-medical-tourism/

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Beaches, Buttocks and Medical Tourism

Posted on 3 May 2010 in Uncategorized by admin

Medical Tourism is a fast-growing trend in the search for the perfect body, or a money saving medical procedure like replacing a hip or getting your teeth straight.

And for costly medical procedures for the uninsured and underinsured, treatment abroad may be the only answer.

Some studies like the All Medical Tourism report say the cost of surgery in India, Thailand and South Africa can be one-tenth of what it is in the United States and Western Europe. Sometimes even less.

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The Dangers of Medical Tourism for Bariatric Surgery

Posted on 1 May 2010 in Uncategorized by admin

There”s no question that the waiting lists for weight loss surgery, or bariatric surgery as it”s called, are unacceptably long. The wait list in Canada is well over 5 years, with this number varying across provinces and cities, depending on the availability of local facilities.

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Costa Rica Hosts the First Latin American Global Medicine & Wellness Congress

Posted on 3 April 2010 in Uncategorized by admin

San Jose, Costa Rica (PRWEB) March 29, 2010 — Costa Rica is proud to be hosting the First Latin American Global Medicine & Wellness Congress in San Jose on April 26-28th, 2010.

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Medical Tourism: Are The Savings Worth The Risk?

Posted on 2 April 2010 in Uncategorized by admin

Maybe it’s happened to you: you need an expensive medical procedure, but you don’t have the healthcare coverage to pay for it. Whether it’s heart surgery with the price tag of a house, dental work or plastic surgery, medical care is very expensive in the United States.

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Medical Tourism from the Viewpoint of the Providers and Local Support Staff

Posted on 30 October 2009 in Uncategorized by admin

Medical Tourism or “Medtravel” can mean many different things depending on the perspective of the viewer. To most it means being able to afford or be in a shorter Que for a medical procedure or treatment that the patient may not of been able to obtain otherwise or by other means.

However from the viewpoint of those providing the service it may be a very different matter and see it in a different light. It may be a glamor job for them – away from more mundane work and toiling “in the fields”. In India it may mean a quick escape from the clutches and restraints of the caste system , the opportunities of which simply were not available in any manner or means to their parents and certainly not their grandparents. Not to say in any manner that this is wrong. If the service is provided – as described and at standards promised and agreed and within acceptability ratings as compared to medical treatment “back home”, then all is ok.

Take for example the description below of a medical travel facility in the eyes of the local providers. You might think that the patients are simply going on one big vacation or holiday regardless of the severity or seriousness of their illness and extent of treatment.

In the southwest section of India you’ll find the state of Kerala. The area has long been known as the “God’s own country” and it is famous amongst locals and tourists for a variety of reasons. Some enjoy the backwaters and others the beaches. Those interested in Ayurveda and other forms of health care, however, will be incredibly interested in the medical tourism industry that continues to grow in Kerala.

What is Medical Tourism?

The term “medical tourism” isn’t as luxurious as you might at first believe. While some people associate tourism with “vacations” and “trips” the term actually applies to individuals who travel to foreign countries to obtain health care that is either not available or unaffordable in their own country.

There are several different reasons to use medical tourism in order to obtain health care. Some people, especially celebrities, prefer to have cosmetic surgeries done far from home because they want to be out of the public spotlight while they recover. In other case, some patients may find alternative treatments being utilized in other countries that are not available in their home country. In many cases, the main reason for participating in medical tourism is cost.

Individuals have traveled across international borders for joint replacement, dental work, psychological care, and even hospice treatments. Just about every area of the medical profession welcomes medical tourism in some country. Today there are approximately 50 countries around the globe who participate in medical tourism.

The Risks Associated with Medical Tourism

Those who decide to participate in medical tourism are taking quite a few risks. It is important to realize that the culture in every country is different. The natural immunity you have built up towards diseases in your home country may not protect you from foreign diseases in the place you visit. You’re opening yourself up to infection not only from your procedure, but from amoebic dysentery, paratyphoid, tuberculosis, HIV, and even hepatitis.

One of the reasons people flock towards medical tourism is because the costs associated with care in other countries are often much less than the cost of care in their own homes. For example, the cost of healthcare in the United States is so expensive because it is heavily regulated by government agencies who are concerned with quality control. If the doctor makes a mistake in a foreign country you may have no recourse and, even if you did sue, the doctor is not very likely to pay you.

Ethical issues may arise as well. In some countries, such as Thailand, doctors are so focused on foreign travelers (who pay more) that they have less time for local Thai patients who urgently need their care.

Medical Tourism in Kerala

The Indian state of Kerala focuses on Ayurveda as its traditional medicinal system and is heavily promoted as a medical tourism destination because of these classical treatments. That’s not to say that Kerala is solely focused on Ayurveda, though. The state prides itself on having highly trained doctors from all areas of the medical profession and is believed to have some of the finest medical facilities in the world.

Indian doctors have gained recognition around the world. They’re known for being very skilled and caring and several of the finest Indian doctors return to India after touring and training abroad. The Indian medical system also includes world-class pre- and post-operative care – meaning you won’t be rushed out of your hospital bed because of corporate or bureaucratic red tape.

The types of medical care available in Kerala include:

Ayurveda

Cardiac

Dental

Transplant Surgery

Ophthalmology

Orthopedic

Neurosurgery

Fertility Treatment

General Surgery, and

Other alternative practices (naturopathy, Siddha, etc)

Kerala is popular amongst medical tourists for a number of reasons. Aside from providing high-quality medical care for low prices, the area is relatively easy to access and boasts a temperate climate year round. Visitors will be able to communicate easily with their doctors and the public and will have the finest amenities available, both in the hospital and in their hotels.

http://blog.ratestogo.com/medical-tourism-kerala/

Medical tourism is, of course, not something that should be taken lightly – whether you plan to travel to Kerala or some other country. Make sure you conduct thorough research before deciding to take a trip overseas for a procedure you could have had done back home. Do the benefits outweigh the risks?

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American Health Care : American Hospitals – Expensive But the Gold Standard

Posted on 18 June 2009 in Uncategorized by admin

It is more than amazing.  On top of that medical tourism medtravel may well see more than its projected increases in use and implementation over the next several years.

While it is true that many in the US choose or almost forced by economics to seek health care outside the US it was their choice.  Medical tourists who had cash and wealth – King of Jordan , foreign politicians , oil sheiks did not choose anywhere else generally but the US – be it the Mayo Clinic , John Hopkins or other such respected venues. US health care may of been expensive to many – yet it was available and set the standards of excellence , as opposed to British health care or E.U.  Even though most of the health care institutions overseas are touted as “high quality”  or “as good as “  no one sets these as the highest standard to compare to.

Note the following article of the health care cuts – to the most needy of top of that – by the bureaucrats of the upcoming US socialized non-socialized medical system.

If you have any sense that you may be getting sick in the years ahead, I suggest you get sick immediately. If you will be in need of surgery or any other medical procedure, do it now! If not immediately, be certain that you hand yourself over to the health care professionals before Oct. 15 of this year. That is the date on which President Barack Obama hopes to sign his health care bill once it has gone through the congressional baloney grinder.


At the heart of President Obama’s plan is his stated goal to cut medical costs. That might sound good to you, but it means cutting services, nurses, technicians, medical tests and, most prominently, the use of expensive technology. The president’s top medical advisers are quite frank about this. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of Rahm Emanuel and a health policy adviser in the Office of Management and Budget, has chided Americans for the expense of their being “enamored with technology.” Dr. David Blumenthal, another key Obama adviser, charges medical innovations as being responsible for fully two-thirds of the annual increase in health care spending. Their solution is to limit expensive innovations. A 2008 Congressional Budget Office report agrees with their cost analysis but concludes happily that such innovations “permit the treatment of previously untreatable conditions.” As I shall show, there are more humane ways to cut health care costs.


Also at the heart of President Obama’s plan is the restriction of services for people 65 and older, who by virtue of modern medicine may actually be 10 to 15 years younger in terms of good health than they would have been a generation ago. Alas, they still have higher health risks and costs than younger people. Thus, they are going to bear the brunt of the Obama administration’s cost cuts, for 27 to 30 percent of Medicaid spending is spent for caring for people at the ends of their lives. With the government taking over more of the nation’s health care costs under the Obama regime, it already has been decided that government monies are spent more economically on younger people than on older people. If a 65-year-old needs the cost of a hip replacement covered, the government will say it would better spend that money on a younger person, whose hip will last longer. Or perhaps the government will decide the money is better spent on preventive medicine for younger people.


In the federal stimulus legislation that the president signed Feb. 17, we find funding for a Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research. “Comparative effectiveness research” is a term used by economists in health care for making health comparisons based often on age, which leads to limiting care based on a patient’s age. In Great Britain, comparative effectiveness research is actually used to deny patients treatment for age-related diseases, such as heart disease and macular degeneration. When the federal stimulus bill was going through Congress, there were warnings regarding the consequences of comparative effectiveness research. Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., a heart surgeon, warned that it would lead to “denying seniors and the disabled lifesaving care.”


Yet the policy remained in the bill, along with requirements for doctors’ offices and hospitals to maintain databanks on patients while creating a national network to monitor patients’ care. The good side of that is that a central database can send out the latest information on treatments, though doctors who keep up with their medical journals already know about these treatments. The dark side is that it will allow the federal government to control how our doctors treat us. The bill speaks of “appropriate” and “cost-effective” care and provides penalties against doctors, beginning in 2014. Now there is an Orwellian twist to the Obama promise of “hope” and “change.”


As Betsy McCaughey has written in a groundbreaking analysis of the Obama health care proposals, Draconian cost-control measures are not the answer to health care reform, and they are based on erroneous data. Health care’s spending increases over the past five years have been about half what they were in the recent period before that. Average family spending on food, energy and health care has remained the same for decades. Moreover, contrary to myth, there are not 47 million uninsured Americans, but actually about 22 million. Rather than pass a health care reform that mercilessly would limit health care to older citizens (and to chronically ill citizens) while still increasing federal expenditures by at least a trillion dollars, she suggests a modest reform, to wit, debit cards for the uninsured and the needy.


Appearing in a recent installment of Spectator.org, McCaughey wrote, “Providing sliding scale assistance, based on household income, to families to purchase . coverage would cost $20 to $25 billion a year.” That is one reform that would deal with our present problems. There are others, which I shall take up in later columns. What we do not need is Orwell’s Big Brother overseeing the rationing of health care to senior citizens, particularly senior citizens with years of life ahead of them.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/tyrrell061809.php3

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