Travel reservations: Push for offshore care

Plenty of companies are lining up to ship people overseas for care once insurers and employers are ready. But it's an open question when, or if, they will ever be ready.

By Pamela Lewis Dolan, AMNews staff. Nov. 5, 2007.

Getting a passport in preparation for surgery isn't on the minds of most patients. But the medical tourism industry is betting that it will be soon, as a small but growing group of companies work to create a medical travel system that is so well-oiled, they brag that scheduling surgery abroad will be easier than booking a vacation.

Firms are offering perks from full-service bookings that include recuperation time at four- and five-star hotels, money-back guarantees and even liability insurance -- like the kind someone would buy for a rental car -- to lessen the trepidation for patients considering overseas care.

The companies aren't just waiting for that comfort level to rise, either. They are courting large employers and health plans by promising to find the best foreign hospitals they claim rival U.S. facilities in quality measures, all while saving them up to 80% in health care costs so they will offer employees and members incentives for seeking care abroad.

And the medical travel companies themselves are being courted by countries and overseas hospitals eager to take American patients. For example, the director of medical services for the Singapore Tourism Board said 555,000 tourists had received medical treatment in that country last year. Singapore would like to bring that number to 1 million per year by 2012.

Wockhardt Hospitals in India has posted a series of videos on YouTube targeted to specific procedures and specific countries patients might be coming from. Hospitals also are organizing tours for medical travel companies, hoping to be included in their networks.