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Symposium Overview |
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A growing number of U.S. residents, health plans, and self-insured employers are finding medical tourism and global healthcare sourcing to be attractive options. Health plans and employers recognize the value in terms of patient outcomes and the bottom line. Patients are spurred by the trend of insurance companies to shift more costs to patients, as well as easy access to cost-effective and high quality medical care overseas.
While the popularity of medical tourism and global health sourcing is expected to continue with rapid exponential growth, it is appropriate only for certain types of procedures and in select foreign facilities. The Thailand Medical Tourism and Healthcare Trade Fair presents vital information on evaluating and accessing medical tourism programs that satisfy the needs of patients, employers and health plans alike — and the pitfalls that need to be avoided.
The Thailand Medical Tourism and Healthcare Trade Fair is designed especially for:
- Uninsured and under-insured individuals seeking high quality and affordable healthcare
- Health plan and insurance companies
- Product developers and managers
- Business development directors
- Marketing executives
- Provider network and contracting managers
- Employer CFOs and employee benefits directors
The word is out! Patients, particularly those with high deductibles, limited-benefit plans, or no insurance at all, can potentially save a great deal of money by seeking expensive medical care abroad. A procedure that might cost $50,000 in the United States could cost a patient just 20 percent of that figure if performed in Thailand and other countries. As a result, Americans increasingly are scheduling surgeries from angioplasty to knee replacements at hospitals around the world. An estimated 150,000 Americans traveled abroad for medical care last year.
Insurers and employers are covering some procedures performed abroad, forming medical-tourism subsidiaries, and considering policies to cover workers who travel to a foreign country for treatment. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina recently formed a new subsidiary, Companion Global Healthcare, Inc., to manage travel arrangements for enrollees seeking medical care overseas. The company partnered with a Thailand hospital.
While the trend continues, there is an abundance of logistical, quality, and legal issues facing insurers and employers that sponsor medical tourism.
- How is healthcare coordinated in the host country and with providers managing care at home?
- How are post-operative complications managed?
- Is care reimbursed on an in-network or out-of-network basis?
Find the answers to these questions and more from experts in the medical tourism field. Also hear the experiences of United States based physicians who have accompanied their patients to Thailand and performed medical procedures in Thai hospitals. Find out how to prepare for this growing trend in global healthcare sourcing. Participant will receive timely, strategic insights on topics such as:
- Managing the logistics of medical tourism: Which procedures are appropriate for medical tourism? Hear how patients are managed during the initial recovery period, and learn how they will locate and receive follow-up care once they return home. How do facilitators and patients choose the countries and the providers to use?
- Quality of care: How can insurers, employers, and patients ensure that facilities and providers meet U.S. expectations for quality of care? How similar is Joint Commission International certification to the accrediting process that U.S. hospitals follow?
- Legal issues: What do you need to know about privacy concerns, fiduciary liabilities, and other legal issues that insurers and employers face in sponsoring medical tourism?
- Reimbursement: How common is it for health insurers and employers to reimburse for medical procedures received abroad? How is reimbursement typically structured? What about travel expenses? What is usually the patient's share of costs?
- Cost savings: How much can insurers and patients save through medical tourism? How long might it take for insurers to realize such savings?
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