What are you doing for summer vacation? Scuba diving in Mexico? Enjoying a gondola ride in Venice? Getting your hip replaced in Singapore?
You read that right. An emerging trend in U.S. health care appears to be . . . leaving the U.S. for your health care. “Medical tourism,” as it’s called, has come a long way since it meant traveling to South America for discreet but what some viewed as risky cosmetic surgery at bargain basement prices. Many health care procedures cost much more in the U.S. than they do in other countries—even countries with top-quality health care. A recent survey of medical charges in 30 countries by the International Federation of Health Plans shows, for instance, that the average cost per hospital day in the U.S. is $3,949; the second highest reported cost was Chile, at $1,552.
People are beginning to notice these numbers.
When Peter Hayes, a principal at Health Care Solutions, directed health care strategy for the Hannaford Supermarket chain a few years back, he realized it was cheaper to send workers who wanted hip replacements all the way to Singapore—with a companion, all expenses paid—than to send them to a local hospital. In fact, it was so much cheaper that all the employee’s cost-sharing obligations would be waived, as well, and it would still save the company money.
Immediately after Hayes’ company announced the benefit—and potential savings of $30,000 each for Hannaford and around $3,000 each for the patients— a local hospital stepped up and matched the prices and shared the quality data Hayes had been seeking. That hospital did the majority of hip replacements for Hannaford’s employees, as well as those of other employers in the market.
Actually, Hayes’ goal was not necessarily to send services to off-shore destinations, but rather to motivate U.S. health care providers to step up their game and compete on quality and price. And, he says, it succeeded and exceeded their expectations.
If medical tourism continues to grow, it might be global competition that finally forces U.S. medical prices to drop.
Health Care Perspectives 
Right about now I think EVERYTHING is fair game!! Notice how manufacturing in the USA is beginning to re-surface? Maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnelk
Thanks!
JAD
Thank you Dave. I agree that many of the procedures done in the US have inflated costs. Not sure why but it is true. I have personal experience with this in fact and much of the time, certain procedures are denied only to pose for a more major procedure that may not be required at all. Not sure why that is either but wanted to let you know.
I agree. The cost of seeing a doctor or any medical service is too expensive in USA. In fact I feel the overheads in administration and redundancy in diagnosis make the costs go very high. We should look at other countries that try to streamline diagnosis/patient care that strikes right balance at optimal patient care for the right amount of money. May be it does not need to be “above and beyond”. May be it just needs to be “right”. Like how we say avoid gold plating in Project Management.
One can only hope that your optimism regarding U.S. medical costs to drop is rewarded…and soon! The current climate in the healthcare world is gloomy as today’s weather; it would be nice indeed, to see a ray or two of sunshine on the horizon.
hm… interesting. The devil is in the details though. True there is no registry in the US to monitor the sort of problems that hip replacements are susceptible to, nor is there one in Singapore as there is in England and Wales. So there is no ability to track failures, complications, infection rates, mortality and the like. US hospitals do keep infection data and test for Hep C, unlike many hospital systems in Singapore, however. And there is some mechanism for follow-up with recalls, I believe.
Alt together, there is not proper data available to verify that the medical care received and long term surgical outcome is comparable, although the cost numbers are available and seem convincing. By the way, the commonly use DePuy hip was recalled in 2010. Did the Singapore doctors notify their patients and follow-up? And did Hannaford’s insurer cover the airfare for a return appointment for patient and companion to follow up and stay in Singapore for repeat surgery, etc. How did folks learn of the recall, if they heard at all?
I’m sort of out of my ballpark with this discussion, but my point being that these are difficult discussions without the facts, but easy and fun to engage in superficially.
S. Bonnie Liebers
Schenectady