Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Insurance Companies Want Members To Travel Abroad For Care
Health insurance companies are starting to promote a practice that is known as “medical tourism,” or traveling overseas to get medical care. Why? Because health care costs for many procedures are fractions of the cost of the same procedures in the United States.
For example, a heart procedure costing $100,000 in the U.S. may cost less than $20,000 in some Asian countries.
Because of these reduced costs, insurance companies are offering some big incentives for policyholders when they travel overseas for medical treatment.
For a patient’s medical travels, insurers are waiving copayments and deductibles, paying for traveling costs, and on top of all that, giving cash incentives, reported BusinessWeek.
There are some possible drawbacks to medical tourism. Some worry insurance companies will raise deductibles and copayments for procedures that are less expensive outside the country. It is also very difficult for patients to sue doctors in other countries for medical malpractice.
Another concern of foreign health care facilities is the quality of care. But they are accredited by the same non-profit organization that rates American facilities, the BusinessWeek article wrote.
“Medical travel is going to be part of the solution [of stopping rising health care costs],” said David Boucher, assistant vice president of healthcare services at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina.
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