Here is the text of the below 4 pages:
Healthcare and Medical Tourism
By C. W. Harris, (Atlanta Metro area), Georgia USA (Consumer2010@aol.com)
Are you one of the 46 million Americans that are either not insured or are you under insured?
Well, I am, although I like to sugar coat it by saying that I am 'self insured'. I am in that large group who has too much money to be a charity case, but not enough money to easily pay $150-230,000 from retirement savings for a heart valve replacement operation.
Four years ago I discovered the problem and for 3 1/2 years it was under reasonable control with a series of prescribed medications. But finally a very bad reading on a yearly test mandated a valve replacement ASAP.
Fortunately I had put away a 4 page long article on "medical tourism" in Time Magazine's May 29, 2006 issue and I was aware that there were many firms which can assist in finding patients medical care overseas, at greatly reduced prices from what they find in the USA for us 'self pay' patients.
After extensive on-line research with google and other search engines and after contacting several firms, I settled on one health referral firm called Healthbase.com in Newton, Mass. and I faxed them my medical records, they in turn sent them on to a top heart specialist in India Dr. Naresh Trehan whose surgical team works at the Apollo Hospital in Delhi, India.
Medical Tourism firms are a bit more than travel agents, but like them, they will arrange for your passport/visa, flights to and from your destination and even airport pickup and later return. They kept in touch by phone even when I was in the hospital in Delhi. It is always nice to get a call from 'home' when you are in the hospital overseas.
The quote provided by Healthbase.com, for a 12 day hospital stay and operation, in the 'Joint Commission International' accredited Apollo Hospital in Delhi, India was $13,172, less than 10% of the costs I would incur in the U.S. The 12 day stay was quoted at $7,608 (USD), Valve cost of $2,359 and the Professional fee for Dr. Trehan and his Team was $3,205. Even with the $1,200 R/T air fare my costs would be only about $15,000, a savings of over 90%!
Costs for using the medical tourism firm would have been a $250 fee, but as I already had my passport I opted to obtain my visa from the Indian Consulate General in Houston and book my own flights and the cost then was down to only $99. If I had it to do over I would have just paid the extra as my Visa application sat on someone's desk for weeks and it began to look like it was lost or misplaced. Had I opted for the 'full service' the firm would have had a runner walk it through the Indian Consulate in New York City and gotten the visa stamped into my passport the same day.
So after 2 months of organizing things I flew on KLM Airlines from Atlanta, the 16 hours to India, with a 4 hour layover in Amsterdam to change planes. At 8,362 miles it is a long trip but actually shorter than other destinations that offer similar care for somewhat higher, but still inexpensive, prices.
I considered treatment options in: Thailand at $10,500, Singapore $13,000 and the Philippines, before settling on India which was still less expensive, with the Time Magazine Article estimate of $9,500, but my cost was slightly higher than average due to my advanced condition.
Initially I had thought that something closer to home would be possible but inquiries about such services in South and Central America indicated that those areas were more into cosmetic and dental surgery and not particularly well known for their heart operations.
Next week: My unexpected adventures in India
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Healthcare and Medical Tourism
Part 2 - My unexpected adventures in India
By C. W. Harris, Kennesaw, Georgia USA
In last weeks article I discussed my choice to save money on my heart valve replacement and take a trip to India for ‘medical tourism’ and how my total costs of $15,000 were less than 10% of what I would have had to pay without insurance in the US.
This week, I will finish the story:
Flights to Delhi, India arrive and depart in the late evening or early morning hours, so I arrived after midnight on KLM (Atlanta - Amsterdam - Delhi) after a 16 hour 8,300 mile trip.
I was met at the arrivals area of the Delhi airport by Mr. Anup Handa, a representative of the Apollo Hospitals ‘Trehan Team’ who would soon be replacing my defective heart valve. The hospital is a 30 minute taxi ride away and even at night Delhi is a busy city. It is also a very poor city with people sleeping in the median strip of the highway and on sidewalks and in doorways. You don’t want to be poor in India!
Upon arrival my assigned assistant began the routine of getting me checked into a private room. Even at 2 a.m. there were 30+ people in the waiting room and I noticed that I was by far the largest person in the room at my height of 6’4”. Most Indians are of much shorter stature so I always seem to attract attention for both my height and being obviously a ‘westerner’.
The following day I met with Dr. Naresh Trehan MBBS in his office with members of his team and he told me about his 18 years working in New York City hospitals and he went into detail as to what would soon happen in my surgery. Various tests were required beforehand to verify and update the medical records which were already on file.
Thankfully, I do not remember the operation, in fact I have no memory at all even of leaving my room for the surgical theater. I woke up in the recovery room where Dr. Trehan was on hand to inform me that my operation was a success and there were no complications.
After half a day in a noisy 'recovery room' I was back on my floor but at a different room, unfortunately next to a stairwell which led to the lobby and a quick exit from the hospital.
3 days after the operation the hospital PR people asked me if I felt up to doing an interview for French TV, a reporter and camera man were doing interviews on various Apollo patients and I agreed. I spent an interesting 45 minutes in the atrium answering questions as to how I chose this hospital and my impressions of the treatment.
That is the 'good news', the very bad news is that upon the return to my room, only around the corner and 60 ft. from where we had done the interview, I immediately noted that a cabinet that had been locked when I left the room was now open. A quick check showed that my briefcase was gone and in it were 2 cameras, travelers checks, cash and all my ID including my brand new passport.
Hospital security was there at once but it was of course too late, the stairway next to my room was handy for more than emergency evacuations, it also would get a thief to the ground floor and out of the hospital in less than 2 minutes. This incident was a major embarrassment to the hospital and they spared no effort to try and find the thief.
I of course made as many notifications to card companies and travelers check companies as I could. Getting hold of Mastercard proved impossible but I got help from American Express in both blocking the 2 cards and finding out where they had been used. Charges started just 2 hours after the theft! From restaurants to jewelry stores. The hospital security together with one of my doctors actually took the time and effort to go to the various stores where Amexp charges were made and even located video footage of the person attempting to use the card. Unfortunately no one in the hospital who saw the video was able to identify the person and even though I was able to see my cat burglar I was not able to identify him.
End of that story right? Wrong! The next morning I phoned the U.S. Embassy a few minutes after it opened to report the circumstances of the theft of the passport. I wrongly thought that someone might be interested. I was told to come down to the Embassy and file a report. Of course I was by then only 4 days off the operation table, had no identification at all and not one cent in any currency on the face of the earth, but I was expected to drop by the Embassy to do paperwork!
The Director of the Apollo Hospital is the only American employed there, he assured me that he would get someone from the embassy to come to the hospital to take up the matter but things did drag on a bit until by some fortunate eventuality an Indian morning newspaper printed details of the theft.
This did not make the Apollo Hospital happy, as it made them look bad in having one of their foreign patients robbed while in their hospital, but it did have the effect of getting me a phone call from the embassy and after that wheels got set in motion. All US Consulates and Embassies keep an eagle eye on news reports for anything involving US interests or US citizens, unfortunately they don't seem to care unless it gets in the papers, then they pretty much have to do something.
If it hadn't been for that report in the newspaper I might still be in India trying to get a replacement passport! FYI, what you get is not free, you pay another $97 for it and the replacement passport is only good for one year. And you can forget that old chestnut about getting any loan from some mythical Embassy/Consulate fund so you can buy a ticket back to the USA and repay them later. If you don't have some relative or bank that can wire you money then you can just live in a cardboard box or swim home. They are not going to do anything for you.
A 12 day hospital stay ended up as a 22 day stay but eventually I arrived 'home', and checked in with my local cardiologist. He was less than pleased to hear of my operation. I reminded him that he had told me that he had given me a six month window of opportunity to get the replacement. His reply was "Well, I never told you to go to India!"
Shortly after my return and before I could return to my condo in Panama City Beach, I developed a very serious infection of the incision. Heart patients are unfortunately prone to picking up infections and I picked up a real rare one. I was taken by ambulance to a Marietta Hospital and was transferred 2 days later to Emory Crawford Long Hospital in downtown Atlanta where I remained another 14 days with a 2nd operation to 'debride' the wound.
That is a fancy way of saying they dig a trench in your chest along the original incision and take out the infected flesh. It is somewhat unnerving to look down at a 7" long open wound, which I had for 3 months as it slowly closed up. I told my plastics doctor that since it looked like raw hamburger we should put some 'hamburger helper’ on it. Another invaluable lesson was learned: "Doctors have no sense of humor!"
I think David Letterman said it best when he opined: "If someone tells you that you need a heart operation - immediately run in the opposite direction."
Nov. 18, 2011 Update -
In the past few months I have had some tests and it seems that the area around the mechanical valve is 'leaking' and the valve needs replacement, also another valve is reported to have too high a pressure, so probably 2 valves need to be replaced. Pig valves this time. For the moment I remain on medication and I am hoping to keep it that way for as long as possible. Eventually an operation will be required but I am not looking forward to this.
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web links of interest are:
http://healthbase.com/
http://www.apollohospdelhi.com/
Http://www.drnareshtrehan.com/curriculamvitae.htm
Update 1/1/2010
After reading my blog you may want additional information on Medical Tourism - India, here are 2 links FYI
http://www.angelfire.com/ar/laparoscopy/medicaltourism.html,
http://www.surgerytimes.com
The blog by Dr Arun Prasad makes many very good points on the both medical tourism in general and the Apollo Hospital.
SPECIAL REPORT: MEDICAL TOURISM
With skyrocketing healthcare costs a major concern, many people are finding they can save money on medical and dental procedures by hitting the road. But how far would you go to save as much as 80% off of the cost of surgery?
Reporter: Erica Rakow WJHG-TV, Panama City, Fla.
Email Address:
erica.rakow@wjhg.com
A new group of tourists are packing their suitcases and heading to other countries, not for the travel but for non-emergency medical and dental procedures. Why? It's all about money.
Fonda Pulliam, a Panama City resident, needed two crowns. A local dentist told her it would be at least $2,400, a price that made Fonda consider putting it off.
"I was really depressed because my husband wasn't working at the time. So I knew I had to do something," said Fonda Pulliam.
Some research turned up Dr. Alberto Coto, who said he'd do the work for $750. The only problem: Dr. Coto was in Costa Rica. "That was like a no-brainer. My next call was to Jet Blue," said Pulliam.
Fonda ran into no problems combining a vacation with a trip to the dentist. She had other work done and told her friends. So far, a couple dozen friends have visited Dr.Coto.
"As a result of going there in a span of two years and four trips, we became friendly with the dentist and he did something that I’ve never heard of a dentist doing before. He took us to dinner with his family twice; have me a birthday party on my 80th birthday," said Panama City resident, Tom Hails, who went to Dr. Coto.
Tom Hails enjoyed saving money, too. And more intricate procedures done in Costa Rica saved even more.
"The procedure for the sinus lift, 10 years ago was $15,000 in St. Petersburg. There, the doctor did the sinus lift for $1,500," said Judy Pettit who also went to Dr. Coto.
"We do works and treatments that takes like years or many months in the U.S. and many visits, we are able to do in 5 days," said Dr. Alberto Coto.
If you're questioning the safety and risks involved, you're not alone.
"Somebody will have something done and then come back and have a problem and no one to go back to see. So that is many of the problems we come across," said Dr. Tara Griffin with Emerald Coast Dental Spa.
But Dr. Coto says that's not a deal breaker. "We have 100% warranty so if something happens to the patient, we will invite patient to come back here ASAP and he doesn't have to pay anything. We will cover 100% of the expenses," said Dr. Coto.
Many americans believe that doctors in the United States have better training and equipment.
"The Board of Dentistry, especially to practice in the state of Florida, you know you go through a certified dental school and pass your board examinations in order to practice here. They don't have the same standards that we have in the U.S.,” said Dr. Griffin.
Dr. Coto says like many doctors in Costa Rica, he did part of his training in America. Dr. Coto spent time training at Jackson Memorial hospital in Miami. He says his equipment is equivalent to what's used here. Still, experts say if you're considering medical tourism, you should carefully research the doctor and locale. For many medical tourists, though, there's an overriding concern.
"Many things are cheaper outside of the U.S. and dental work is one of them," said Tom Hails.
Experts say the most popular destinations for medical tourism are Costa Rica, Turkey and Thailand. Other hot spots are India and Saudi Arabia.
The higher the cost of the procedure in the United States, the more money you can save by taking it offshore. For example, heart bypass surgery in the Southeastern United States can be about $144,000. In Thailand, it's about $22,000.
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Photos from Apollo Hospital in Delhi, India Sept/Oct 2007
Above photo
is of C W Harris and assigned administrative aid Anup Handa. Anups job is to meet and return to the airport the incoming overseas patients. He also visits several times a day to make sure everything goes well and liases with the patient and the surgical team. He also arranged a few minor outings around Delhi to find gifts for friends. Anup told me that his 'salary' is only $300 a month or R12,000. in local currency. He is well paid by local standards but has no car and rents a room in a house -
Photos Oct 2007
The Apollo Hospital in Delhi, India has about 50% more staff than you would find in a US hospital. Probably due to the lower cost of help in
India.
The fee for my surgical team was only $3,200 of the overall cost of approx $15,000.
Rooms are modern with shower, ice box, color TV. Most patients bring an 'attending' with them and they sleep in the room on a convertable sofa that pulls out into a bed. I brought no one with me and this seemed to amaze them and despite my repeatedly telling them that there was only one occupant for the room, I usually ended up with 2 meals being delivered.
Apollo Hospital is 10 years old and accredited by the same 'Joint Commission International' that accredits US hospitals.
Language is not a problem. All Doctors and Nurses speak English and the department supervisors of house keeping and kitchen also speak English.
The lower echelon employees usually don't speak English. Almost all Doctors are US or UK trained. The only American employeed there was the Apollo Hospital Director who was very helpful when I had a major loss due to a breakin of a cabinet in my room.
Most Indians are of short stature and I usualy towered above most of them at my 6'4" height.
I had a lot more photos but in the break in my 2 cameras with those photos, was stolen. I did manage to get out to an electronics store and get a nice Sony replacement and thus had some photos to bring back.
Above: A typical room for foreign patients.
Below Photo:
C W Harris, of Kennesaw and Panama City Beach, shown shaking hands with his Doctor renowned Indian surgeon Dr. Naresh Trehan. He spent 15 years learning his craft in NY hospitals before returning to India to establish a world class surgical program at the Apollo Hospital. He was the personal physician to a former President of India.
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OUTSOURCING YOUR HEART
TIME MAGAZINE
Outsourcing Your Heart
By Unmesh Kher Sunday,
Whiplash was just the first agony that Kevin Miller, 45, suffered in a car accident last July. The second was sticker shock. The self-employed and uninsured chiropractor from Eunice, La., learned that it would cost $90,000 to get the herniated disk in his neck repaired. So, over the objections of his doctors, he turned to the Internet and made an appointment with Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, the marble-floored mecca of the medical trade that--with its liveried bellhops, fountains and restaurants--resembles a grand hotel more than a clinic. There a U.S.-trained surgeon fixed Miller's injured disk for less than $10,000. "I wouldn't hesitate to come back for another procedure," says Miller, who was recovering last week at the Westin Grande in Bangkok.
With this surgical sojourn, his first trip outside the U.S., Miller joined the swelling ranks of medical tourists. As word has spread about the high-quality care and cut-rate surgery available in such countries as India, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, a growing stream of uninsured and underinsured Americans are boarding planes not for the typical face-lift or tummy tuck but for discount hip replacements and sophisticated heart surgeries. Bumrungrad alone, according to CEO Curtis Schroeder, saw its stream of American patients climb to 55,000 last year, a 30% rise. Three-quarters of them flew in from the U.S.; 83% came for noncosmetic treatments. Meanwhile, India's trade in international patients is increasing at the same rate.
That's still a trickle compared with the millions of surgeries performed each year in the $2 trillion U.S. health-care system. But a significant shift is under way. It's one that could put greater competitive pressure on U.S. hospitals as some of their most lucrative patients are siphoned off. Elective surgeries are key moneymakers for hospitals, and even a small drop-off can cut deep into their profits.
What may accelerate the trend is that some pioneering U.S. corporations, swamped by rising health-care costs, are taking a serious look at medical outsourcing. Blue Ridge Paper Products of Canton, N.C., a manufacturing company, may soon offer employees outsourcing as a health-care option. The carrot? The patient would get to pocket some of the firm's substantial savings.
The calculus behind this interest isn't complicated. Many major employers in the U.S. are self-insured, which means they pick up the tab for much of their employees' medical care. That's why three major corporations that collectively cover 240,000 lives asked Dr. Arnold Milstein, national healthcare "thought leader" at the consultancy Mercer Health & Benefits, to assess the best places to outsource elective surgeries. Procedures in Thailand and Malaysia, he found, cost only 20% to 25% as much as comparable ones in the U.S.; top-notch Indian hospitals sell such services at an even steeper discount.
The bottom line: If more private payers sent patients abroad for uncomplicated elective surgeries, the savings could be enormous. "This has the potential of doing to the U.S. health-care system what the Japanese auto industry did to American carmakers," says Princeton University healthcare economist Uwe Reinhardt.
U.S. hospitals could certainly do with a little global competition. For years, their share of the national heath-care bill has grown at a rate far faster than inflation, and today they gobble up a third of all medical expenditures. At current rates, the U.S. will be spending $1 of every $5 of its GDP on health care by 2015, yet more than 1 in 4 workers will be uninsured. The ingrained inefficiency of most hospitals doesn't help. "A lot of them still don't know how to schedule their operating rooms efficiently," says Reinhardt. "They've never had to. They always get paid, no matter how sloppy they are."
That sloppiness, among other things, widens the price gap with foreign hospitals that entrepreneurs are exploiting. United Group Programs (UGP) of Boca Raton, Fla., a third-party administrator that sells a low-premium, bare-bones form of coverage called a mini--medical plan, this month began promoting Bumrungrad Hospital as a preferred provider to its customers.
Employees of self-insured businesses who use the more conventional plans designed by UGP will also have access to the Thai hospital. This means that UGP offers the option of partly or fully covered medical tourism to some 100,000 people, including those who could use it most.
Mini-med plans are increasingly popular with contract and hourly workers, who are more likely than most other workers to be uninsured. But these plans are controversial because the buyers often think they cover more than they actually do. UGP's plans at best cap reimbursement for surgery at $3,000 and hospital stays at $1,000 a day. That would barely cover an afternoon in a U.S. hospital. But in Thailand, says Jonathan Edelheit, UGP's vice president of sales and marketing, a heart bypass that would cost its U.S. customers $56,000 could be had for $8,000.
Companies with traditional plans are also taking the initiative. Blue Ridge Paper, which makes the DairyPak brand of packaging, was carved out of the forest-products firm Champion International when its employees bought a few factories that were scheduled to close. But health-care costs are hurting the company. So a Blue Ridge team plans to visit hospitals in India to assess their quality of care. If it gives the green light, Blue Ridge will begin promoting the option to its 2,000 workers.
Employees who opt for India would get to take along a family member, says Darrell Douglas, vice president of human resources, and the whole experience, including a recuperative stay at a hotel, would be covered. IndUShealth, a medical tourism start-up in Raleigh, N.C., will make all arrangements and coordinate care between U.S. and Indian providers. The sweetener: the company will share with these intrepid employees up to 25% of savings garnered from the outsourcing.
Get a new hip--and a rebate. Sounds like a bargain, but would people actually travel 10,000 miles for medical care just to make a few bucks? You bet. Polls commissioned by Milstein suggest that few consumers would opt for surgery abroad for incentives below $1,000. But raise the ante above $1,000, and the equation changes. Among people who have sick family members, about 45% of the underinsured or uninsured declare they would get on the plane; even 19% of those who have insurance say they're game. Above $5,000, the percentage of takers climbs to 61% and 40%, respectively.
State governments, which tend to offer generous health-care benefits, may find those numbers appealing. A bill in the West Virginia legislature sponsored by delegate Ray Canterbury outlines incentives for the public employee health-insurance program that are similar to Blue Ridge's. Hospital administrators attending the legislative session when the bill came up for a hearing in February nearly gagged, says Canterbury: "They were not happy. But I didn't expect them to be. The point is to make them face competition."
Is the quality of care in foreign hospitals high enough? To cater to an international clientele, many private hospitals abroad are applying for accreditation (many of them successfully) from the Joint Commission International, the global arm of the institution that accredits most U.S. hospitals. Many of the tourist hospitals teem with surgeons who have trained in the U.S. or Britain, which is a great comfort to American patients (the irony is that 25% of physicians in the U.S. got their M.D.s abroad). Escorts Heart Institute and Research Center in Delhi, for instance, was founded by an authority on robotic cardiac surgery, Dr. Naresh Trehan, formerly of New York University.
Wayne Steinard, 59, a general contractor from Winter Haven, Fla., is one of those U.S. patients "who fall through the cracks" of the health-care system, as he says. Steinard landed in New Delhi last week with his daughter Beth Keigans to get a clogged artery cleared and a stent installed. Steinard, too rich for Medicaid and too poor for insurance, certainly didn't have the $60,000 he would have had to pay back home. So he contacted PlanetHospital, a Malibu, Calif., medical-tourism agency, and learned he could get it done for about a tenth as much at Max Healthcare's Devki Devi Heart and Vascular Institute.
Things have not gone as Steinard expected. When surgeon Pradeep Chandra scanned Steinard's angiogram last week, he found the artery 90% blocked. "A stent is out of the question," he told Keigans. "Your father is going to need a double bypass, and he needs it immediately." The blood drained from Keigans' face. While she loved their plush hospital suite and the staff had been superb, this was all happening too far from home. Steinard, though, was blunt about his choices. It's either this, he said, or a fatal heart attack back home. The surgery last week was successful; the hospital's bill: $6,650.
"I'm not sure I'd ever want to come back to Delhi," says Keigans, "but I'll be telling everyone I know to come here if they need surgery. It's not just the price. They've made everything so easy for us."
Yet India is a developing country, and this can shake the confidence of even the most cavalier patient. First-class hotels are in short supply. Beyond that, the country's crumbling infrastructure and shocking income disparities--children pick through the garbage outside Steinard's hospital--make medical tourism seem a tad too adventurous for many. And for the litigious minded, good luck.
The country's malpractice laws limit damage awards, one of many reasons that health care in India is cheaper.
But people don't have to be in Steinard's--or Miller's--straits before they cross borders for care. Retirees, especially the snowbirds who winter in South Texas and Arizona, have turned Mexican towns like Nuevo Progreso (pop. 9,125; dentists, 70), in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and Los Algodones (pop. 15,000; doctors and dentists, 250), near Yuma, Ariz., into dusty dental centers. Los Algodones might rake in as much as $150 million during the winter season. People from Minnesota and California arrive in chartered planes to get their teeth fixed in these dental oases. Two California insurers, Health Net and Blue Shield, for the past few years have marketed popular health-insurance plans, aimed at Latinos, that charge lower premiums and cover treatment on both sides of the border.
Mexico's medical industry is just beginning to bubble; India's, like its other outsourcing segments, is booming. Apollo Hospitals, one of the largest private chains in the world with 46 hospitals in three countries, and Wockhardt Hospitals Group, which has eight hospitals in India, are working through agencies like IndUShealth, PlanetHospital and the Medical Tourist Co. in Britain to build business across the West.
Trehan plans to launch next year, in partnership with GE, the first installment of a vast, $250 million specialty Escorts hospital complex near New Delhi that will feature luxury suites, a hotel and swank restaurants for patients and their families. "We will be the Mayo Clinic of the East," he says. Max Healthcare is also planning a specialty complex in New Delhi (fields: neurologic, orthopedic, ob-gyn and pediatric).
A corresponding boom is taking place among Western agencies that funnel patients to Asia. Eight have popped up in Canada, where national health care can mean a yearlong wait for elective surgery. In the U.S. several firms are aiming at the roughly 61 million people who are uninsured or underinsured. PlanetHospital's founder, "Rudy" Rupak Acharya, says his agency, which in the past seven months has sent some 200 patients abroad, got 11,000 inquiries in March alone. He has just retained Mercer to help him develop an insurance plan for the uninsured that will combine primary and emergency care in the U.S. with surgery abroad.
Patrick Marsek, managing director of the agency MedRetreat, says his company sent 200 people abroad last year and is already processing 320 this year. He is demanding a deposit of $195 from customers because people posing as patients have been looking for information to start up their own agencies.
Will U.S. insurers join the party? Mohit Ghose of the trade group America's Health Insurance Plans says many have taken note of medical outsourcing but are scared off by the regulatory and legal uncertainties. Aaditya Mattoo, a World Bank economist who has published a study on the potential of medical outsourcing, suspects that pure institutional inertia has something to do with the lack of interest.
Yet as the medical-cost crisis deepens, the corporations who pay insurers are likely to find the lure of outsourcing as irresistible in health care as it is in software.
WAYNE STEINARD'S HEART WAS BROKEN ...
With no health insurance and lacking $60,000 for a badly needed operation, Steinard, a 59-year-old Floridian, hopped onto the Internet and then onto a plane to India ...... 8,300 MILES LATER, IT'S FIXED
... and found out that he was closer to a heart attack than he had imagined. Steinard had a double bypass last week in New Delhi, where he is recovering
CUTTING-EDGE VACATIONS In the U.S. insurers negotiate discounts, but the uninsured pay retail rates for medical procedures. Here's how the prices of one surgical tourism agency compare. Its packages include airfare and hospital and hotel rooms, but costs can climb if there are complications.
[This article contains a table and a map. Please see hardcopy of magazine.]
Procedure U.S. Insurer's cost U.S. Retail price India Thailand Singapore
Angioplasty $25,704 to $37,128 $57,262 to $82,711 11000 13000 13000
Gastric bypass $27,717 to $40,035 $47,988 to $69,316 11000 15000 15000
Heart bypass $54,741 to $79,071 $122,424 to $176,835 10000 12000 20000
Heart-valve replacement (single) $71,401 to $103,136 $159,326 to $230,138 9500 10500 13000
Hip replacement $18,281 to $26,407 $43,780 to $63,238 9000 12000 12000
Hysterectomy $9,591 to $13,854 $20,416 to $29,489 2900 4500
Knee replacement $17,627 to $25,462 $40,640 to $58,702 8500 10000 13000
Mastectomy $9,774 to $14,118 $23,709 to $34,246 7500 9000 12400
Spinal fusion $25,302 to $36,547 $62,778 to $90,679 5500 7000 9000
Sources:
Subimo (U.S. rates, including at least one day of hospitalization); PlanetHospital (international rates)
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1196429,00.html#ixzz1e6F6xKGR
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VALVE REPLACEMENT COSTS IN THE U.S.
Double click for larger view or print out
Top Photo: Me sitting in lobby after operation.
Middle: View from my room, shows rear of hospital and park next door.
Bottom: 4th Fl lobby, upper tier is composed of more expensive 'suite
s'
Locked cabinet in center, this was later forced open and my briefcase was stolen, causing a lot of problems with replacement passport, credit cards misused and travelers checks needing to be replaced.
The incision
Top Photo: Open wound is result of 'debriding' to take out infected flesh, leaving an exposed trench which slowly closed up over 3 months. This was done in US 3 weeks after my return from India as the wound became infected. The 'wound vac' is used to suck out any debris from the wound.
Middle: The hose leads to the portable unit which runs 24/7 for 3 months and the hose is sealed into the wound with clear medical tape which is changed every few days at the hospital.
Bottom: taken in India shows neatly sewed up incision about 3 days after operation.
Healthbase is the firm I used to arrange my trip:
http://www.healthbase.com/
http://www.apollohospdelhi.com/
