Peddling medical getaways

By Marshall Allen

Wednesday, May 7, 2008 | 2 a.m.

With signs promoting trips to Singapore, Thailand and Monterrey, Mexico, the gathering might have been for travel agents.

But instead of hyping five-star resorts and day spas, these salesmen were offering travel packages for angiograms, knee replacements, spinal fusions and, well, even colonoscopies.

Welcome to the world of medical tourism, or “global health care,” as those in the industry prefer to call it.

And by one measure, the economy is helping their business.

The growing number of uninsured Americans, combined with skyrocketing health care costs, is leading patients to seek medical care in other countries. If you’re uninsured and need a hysterectomy, which could cost about $13,000 out of pocket in Las Vegas, the folks at Min-Sheng Hospital in Taiwan want to offer you the procedure for $3,000. (They’re also happy to add a cultural side trip to the package, although they say you may not feel up to it.)

People considering elective procedures that aren’t covered by insurance, such as bariatric bands that shrink the stomach, cosmetic procedures or laser eye surgery, may also be drawn to doctors and clinics oversees because of lower prices.

Medical tourism boosters, who were in Las Vegas this week for the Consumer Health World annual conference at the Venetian, loosely claim that about a half-million Americans leave the country annually for medical procedures. The McKinsey Quarterly, a management journal, estimates the number of medical travelers at between 60,000 and 85,000 inpatients annually, but predicted the number would grow to 700,000 a year if insurance companies covered international procedures.

At the conference, representatives of international hospitals were eager to explain that their facilities are accredited by the Joint Commission International, an affiliate of the Joint Commission, which accredits American facilities. And many of the doctors at the international hospitals are trained in the United States, the representatives said.

U.S. patients still must be cautious about medical liability.

Medical representatives from other countries said suing a doctor in a foreign country can be complicated.

Min-Sheng Hospital’s literature describes a menu of procedures: knee and hip replacements, minimally invasive spine surgeries, cosmetic procedures in a “spa-like” setting and infertility treatments. A bariatric lap band procedure, at $10,500, is substantially less expensive than the Las Vegas procedure, at $16,000.

Steven Neeley, a business development specialist for Min-Sheng Hospital, said global health care is especially attractive to immigrants, and that his hospital targets Chinese-Americans. After the stop in Las Vegas he and his Taiwanese colleagues planned to visit Chinese-Americans in Los Angeles.

“We’re really going to be promoting to them to go back and get some of these elective procedures in Taiwan,” Neeley said.

The globalization of health care is prompting insurance companies to explore overseas medical options.

As chief executive of UnitedHealth International, Ori Karev is more accustomed to people coming from other countries to the United States for their health needs. UnitedHealth, the company that just took over a majority of the Las Vegas health insurance market with its acquisition of Sierra Health Services, is “exploring” the subject of global health care, Karev said.

The high cost of health care in the United States is causing consumers and employers to look to other countries for solutions, he said. And the U.S. population’s growing percentage of immigrants suggests more Americans who would be willing to leave the country for treatment. In some cases, a person may have a better support network in a place like Mexico City than he does in the United States, Karev said.

In addition, Karev noted, more than half the companies listed on the S&P 500 have a majority of their employees in other countries. The health care provided to those employees could someday be offered to American employees of the same companies, he said.

There are several fundamental roadblocks to the expansion of medical travel, though, Karev said, including the lack of standardized medical and billing records to support insurance plans.