Comments on: The medical tourism trend

By: medical tourism

medical tourism — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:07:59 +0000

The term “medical tourism” isn’t as luxurious as you might at first believe. While some people associate tourism with “vacations” and “trips” the term actually applies to individuals who travel to foreign countries to obtain health care that is either not available or unaffordable in their own country.

By: Ves Gitchev, MD

Ves Gitchev, MD — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:18:33 +0000

Patients have and continue to travel to US seeking treatment in the “elite” institutions.
However, those are patients with International Health Insurance coverage. Though most come looking for a life saving procedure like Cancer or Gama knife treatment, Organ transplant or Brain surgery, there are those who travel simply because they can. And that includes Well checks visits and Elective procedures.
With that said, the largest flow of patients in Outbound. There are millions of non-insured or under-insured right here in the US who are in need of medical attention.
Medical Tourism sometimes is their only option. Certainly not the first choice, but a lot of times the only choice.
Facilitators like Worldwide Medical Partners (WMP) in Miami, even provide Financing options to cover all expenses. And while the cost of a procedure is often reduced by more than half, quality is not.
There are scores of US trained/educated physicians who opt not to practice, at least not here.
I know, I am one of them.
Rising costs of seemingly everything combined with decreasing reimbursements from the insurance carriers are enough for a lot of my peers to say, enough. Some right of the graduation podium.
Medical Tourism is a very viable option for receiving world class healthcare at greatly reduced cost.
Just do your homework, or better yet, have somebody like WMP to do it for you, at no cost.
Medical Tourism is not the solution to the Healthcare crisis in US or elsewhere, but merely a temporary patch on the way to recovery. The long way to recovery.
It is not a “Black Market” or a Cesspool of healthcare rejects, but an intricate piece of Globalization of Medicine.

By: Lee

Lee — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:32:22 +0000

Careful research will reap you rewards when it comes to Weight Loss Surgery Abroad. Patients can reduce their research headaches by going through a reputable medical travel company like WorldMed Assist. It can be overwhelming to find the best country/hospital/doctor for the procedure needed. WorldMed Assist only partners with hospitals after multi-day, on-site screening. Many of the top surgeons in their partner network were trained in the U.S., and most hospitals have affiliations with renowned US medical centers such as Johns Hopkins and Harvard Medical. Hospitals are squeaky clean, and all their patients have rated their overseas accommodations as five star.