Save Your Medical Bills With Medical Tourism.

Nowadays you may have come across stories about the increasing phenomenon of medical and health tourism. Patients move around the globe to find medical procedures for getting an appropriate solution to their health related issues. One must have health insurance since traveling to a foreign country seems like paying less if there’s a real chance for good quality and affordable global health care.


Let’s see what exactly medical and health tourism means for an individual?


What is Medical Tourism?


The term “medical tourism” refers to people traveling outside of their own countries for medical care, surgical procedures and dental treatment. Historically, medical tourists were often wealthy and affluent patients seeking treatments or procedures that were unavailable in their own country or looking to combine cosmetic procedures with some rest and relaxation in an exotic locale.


However, recently, increasing numbers of less-affluent patients have begun traveling abroad in an effort to control the costs of their medical care. As the quality of medical facilities and care in other countries become comparable to those of the U.S., medical tourism has become a viable option for some patients seeking to cut their medical costs. For example, surgery in a hospital in Singapore or Latin America may cost a quarter of what an American hospital my charge. Likewise, an Indian hospital may charge $10,000 for the open-heart surgery that would cost $30,000 in the UK and $100,000 in the U.S. Considering the potential savings, it is not surprising that some patients find it much cheaper to pay the travel costs and travel abroad for their care.


In addition, because of the smaller demand for health services in other countries, wait times for procedures may be significantly shorter than in the U.S. In many cases, a major surgery can be scheduled within a few weeks and sometimes even days, a far cry from the situation in most major American hospitals. Some of the most popular destinations for medical tourism are Singapore, Thailand, Indian, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and South Africa.


Who is a Good Candidate for Medical Tourism?


Medical tourism may be a good way to save money, in many cases a lot of money, but it is not without risks. If you are considering medical tourism, you should carefully consider these risks before traveling abroad:


Licensing and Certification. Most importantly, it is important to consider that other countries may not regulate professional licensing and certification as closely as the United States. As with all treatments and procedures, it is important to inspect the credentials of any physician treating you. If your physician claims to be U.S. trained and/or certified, you should be able to find confirm this information fairly easily from whatever organization he or she claims affiliation with.


You should also check to see whether the hospital and facilities you are considering have received accreditation similar to what you may find in the United States. For Americans, the best-known accreditation group is the Joint Commission International (JCI), the international arm of the Joint Commission in the U.S., a non-profit organization that accredits U.S. hospitals. Many hospitals which serve international patients have obtained JCI accreditation in an effort to attract more American patients.


Limited Legal Recourse if Things Go Wrong. In the event that the worse case scenario occurs and something does go wrong, you should also consider that you may have very limited legal options. One reason why the cost of medical care in the United States is so expensive is because of the high costs of the malpractice insurance that American physicians carry. Although you can benefit from the lower costs of foreign care if it is successful, if things go wrong, you may find yourself in a foreign country without any ability to seek compensation for malpractice. Even if you are able to win a malpractice case, the doctor or hospital may not have the money, resources or insurance to cover the financial damages that are awarded to you.


You Need Sufficient Follow-Up and Recovery Time. Some hospitals that specialize in medical tourism are in the business of getting patients in and out quickly. If that is the case, you may not receive the follow-up care necessary for your treatment.


You may have to find that follow-up care on your own at home, which may be a pricey proposition as well as an inconvenient on.


In addition, you need to be very mindful of having sufficient recovery time after receiving treatment. Traveling too soon after surgery can cause serious complications. If you fly, the combination of high altitudes and sitting for long periods of time can cause blood clots and pulmonary embolisms, which are both potentially fatal. Less seriously, you risk swelling and infections. If you have surgery in a foreign country, make sure you do your homework on what kind of recovery time is required before you risk travel.


Exposure to Disease. As with whenever you travel to a foreign country, you do risk exposure to diseases to which you have not built up any immunity. Some countries, such as India, Malaysia, or Thailand have very different infectious disease-related epidemiology to Europe and North America. Exposure to diseases without having built up natural immunity can be a hazard for weakened individuals, specifically with respect to gastrointestinal diseases (e.g. Hepatitis A, amoebic dysentery, paratyphoid) which could weaken progress, mosquito-transmitted diseases, influenza, and tuberculosis


Medical Tourism and Health Tourism consultancy are offered by Global Benefit Options.GBO is a skilled medical tourism consultant with wide industry relationships with insurance companies, brokers and hospitals globally. For more information visit http://www.globalbenefitoptions.com
BY: Vishal Shrama

Important things to Consider before Medical Travel or Medical Tourism

Now days, individuals or even  corporate  have taken  radical steps to save with the high cost of medical care in some countries such as the United States by considering medical tourism, oversee surgeries and medical travel. Many have visited to other destinations or countries to get health care healing at a lower price. This is known as medical travel, health care tourism or medical tourism. In other type of cases individuals in developing or poorer countries travels to a richer country to get medical treatment that is not accessible in their own country. An another motive for medical travel is to go from a country with long waits for some treatments as happens sometimes with national medical care to one with less waiting. Following are few reasons one should consider before setting up medical travel and health tourism.

Firstly, people of expensive medical cost countries, like United States and United Kingdom in specific, can save a lot of medical bills with oversee treatment. Surgeries in India, Cost Rica and Mexico are many times cheaper than in the USA, and the same is valid of many other countries. The expensive can be quite noteworthy, especially for treatment that are not covered by medical insurance, or for individuals who are not insured.

Secondly it is becoming frequent for medical insurance companies, agents or employers who want to cut medical expensive to encourage their consumers or employees to practice medical tourism. In this way they can save a lot of funds this way. They may pay partial refunds, or at least cover transportation and housing.

Thirdly, if someone is worried about the standards of medical care oversees; there is good amount assistance and information available. Many international associations and agencies, including the medical tourism associations study medical care facilities, infrastructure and hospitals around the world. They have grant accreditation to many international centers. The standards of medical treatment are a very complicated issue and may differ a lot within a country or states. Accreditation given to international medical centers at least provides some comfort in knowing there is a lower bound on the worth of an accredited facility. 

Fourthly, be cautions that it may be hard or not possible to get reparation for misconduct in some medical centers in different countries. Occasionally misconduct claims are not permissible or very incomplete. In some cases, a negligence suit may be likely, but it may be very tricky to collect if you even win. Negligence should be exceptional, but it is fine to understand that the covers one has at home might not exist abroad.

Lastly, medical tourism and medical travel has some risks of its own. You might come across some diseases that are seldom if ever present at home. Communicable disease during recovery from operation or other treatments is a risky fixation. But the good thing is that medical care staff in the area you are visiting are certainly familiar with the diseases you could catch while there.

There are even risks from the general traveling. The idiom economy class condition refers to the danger of developing blood clots in the lower body due to being seated and unmoving during a long plane flight. Traveling while recovering from surgery raises the risk of this. This is also the one of the factor to consider when thinking about health travel.

Medical Tourism and Health Tourism may be best alternative for many people, for non-emergency treatments of course. It is regularly used for hip, joint and knee replacement or dental surgery. Cosmetic treatment is another possibility. There are medical tourism consultants and facilitators who could provide guidance at every level. They can guide you about the options available in popular medical tourism destinations. These medical tourism consultants act much like a travel agency and set almost the whole things up for you.

Source: http://health.ezinemark.com/important-things-to-consider-before-medical-travel-or-medical-tourism-32046ad330a.html