What is Medical Travel and What do Companies Need to Know to Incorporate a Global Healthcare Benefit into their Employee Plan Design

By Steven Lash, President & Chief Executive Officer, Satori World Medical

Medical travel, whereby Americans travel to international hospitals to receive medical care outside the U.S., is becoming an increasingly viable option, not only for American patients, but for U.S. employers and insurers, as well.

According to the 2008 Deloitte Survey of Health Care Consumers, the medical tourism industry is poised to grow substantially over the next decade. The survey reports that medical tourism will be a $4.4 billion industry by 2009 and increase to $13.9 billion by 2011. The report also forecasts that by 2010, six million Americans will travel abroad for medical care, compared to the 750,000 Americans who received medical care outside of the U.S. in 2007.

Why?
In addition to skyrocketing healthcare costs and rising insurance premiums, a combination of factors has led to a substantial increase in the popularity of medical travel: favorable clinical outcome results in high quality accredited international hospitals; the escalating cost of healthcare in the US; an increase in a patient’s own healthcare expenses; the ease and affordability of international travel; significant improvements in technology, hospitals, physician and nurse training; and overall demonstrable improvements in the transparency, measurement and quantification of the standards of care available globally.

Despite the growing popularity of medical travel, though, one of the biggest challenges that I observe from employers who I speak to about this is that they don’t exactly know how or where to start when it comes to incorporating a global healthcare benefit option into their company’s overall employee benefit plan design. Therefore, I hope this blog post will provide some valuable guidance and insight into the key benefits of medical travel to an employer and how employee benefit decision-makers can start offering a global healthcare benefit option to their employees.

Why Medical Travel?
For an employer, there are a number of compelling reasons to consider medical travel. Among the most significant are:

• Dramatic cost savings: On average, there is a cost savings in excess of 50 percent to receiving medical care outside of the U.S. In turn, employers can dramatically lower their employees’ healthcare expenses. Employers can pass a portion of these significant saving on to their employees. With Satori World Medical’s innovative Health & Shared Wealth Program™, an individual can select a Satori Global Network™ provider for their medical procedure, and a portion of the savings is deposited into their employer-funded Health Reimbursement Account (HRA). Employees can use these funds to finance their future medical expenses. What’s more, the funds are 100 percent tax deductible for the employer while tax free to the employee. Additionally, it is important to note that this is a 100 percent medical benefit so there are no out-of-pocket expenses for the employee, and the package includes all travel and accommodations for the patient and his or her companion. And for the employer, there is no startup cost to add this global healthcare benefit to their existing plan design.

• Superior medical quality, safety and patient care: Many hospitals in other parts of the world offer quality care and favorable clinical outcomes that are equivalent or superior to U.S. hospitals. International medical quality and safety are simply not an issue. Hundreds of international hospitals are now accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI), an arm of the U.S. hospital-accrediting body, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). These hospitals have leading-edge technology; nurse-to-patient ratios exceeding U.S. standards; U.S./U.K. or equivalently trained and Board Certified physicians; medical and nursing staff that is fluent in English; as well as affiliations with prestigious U.S. medical universities, such as Harvard Medical, Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic and others.

• U.S. companies can compete better globally: Global healthcare models result in major economic benefits for U.S. companies because the costs of their employees’ healthcare are greatly reduced. As a result, companies can be more profitable and competitive in today’s global marketplace.

• Employee retention and satisfaction: An organization’s financial strength is built and reinforced by reducing costs and investing in the financial security and well-being of its workforce. Therefore, companies that offer a global healthcare benefit option to their employees can greatly strengthen the overall morale and productivity of their workforce. As a result, companies are able to recruit more qualified and talented job candidates, as well as improve employee loyalty and retention.

• Seamless integration with any existing medical plan: A global healthcare benefit program can be seamlessly added to an employer’s existing employee benefit program and without any startup costs for the employer. An employer’s existing health benefit program isn’t replaced, but rather augments the current benefit package to provide employees with an additional choice and new medical benefit at no cost.

• Single bill for employee claims: When considering the implementation of a global healthcare benefit program, one common concern among employers is whether or not significant internal resources and staff to administer patient claims and billing are involved. Programs such as the one offered by Satori World Medical meets this challenge by handling the entire billing process for the employer, in which a single bill in U.S. dollars is provided for all services rendered, thus reducing company claims processing costs and with no foreign currency exchange fluctuations.

Getting Started
If you, as the employer, have decided that a medical travel program might be right for your company or organization, the first step is to find the right program.

Many medical travel providers or companies cater to patients who are uninsured, so their model is primarily focused on providing medical care at the lowest possible cost to the patient. It is important to assure that the organization meets certain quality standards. One way to determine the quality of a particular international hospital is to look for the JCI accreditation or seal of approval. JCI sets over 350 standards of excellence for international hospitals to meet that ensure the quality and safety of patient care.

In addition, when selecting a medical travel company, it is important for you as the employer to be educated about what services and fees are or are not covered. For instance, are the patient’s costs of travel and transportation fully included in the benefit program? How about the costs for a companion? Are there any deductibles or direct out-of-pocket costs required for the employee? What about start-up costs and administration fees?

Ultimately, there are a number of important reasons why employers should consider offering a global healthcare benefit program to their employees. While a medical travel program is not meant to replace the need for a domestic employer-funded healthcare benefit plan, it can help companies drastically reduce their employees’ medical costs, while at the same time, offer employees more choice and control over their healthcare and medical expenditures.