By Keith Mendoza, Director of Sales, Satori World Medical

When I attended SIIA 29th Annual Educational Conference & Expo last week in Orlando, a large, annual trade show event for the self-insurance/alternative risk transfer industry, I was extremely excited to see the high level of interest among attendees in medical travel. This was evidence to me that global healthcare programs will play a viable and meaningful role in providing quality, affordable healthcare solutions for America’s self-insured employers and their workforce.

Self-Insurance Institute of America, Inc. (SIIA), which hosts this annual event, is an industry association dedicated to serving all members of the self-insured market, including self-insured employers, captive insurance companies, risk retention groups, TPAs, industry service providers, and global healthcare entities/facilities. Self-Insurance has become an increasingly attractive option for many employers due to the rising costs associated with healthcare and Workers’ Compensation insurance.

In speaking with attendees about medical tourism, it became especially clear to me that while the idea of reducing healthcare costs for employers and their employees is compelling, the global healthcare models that will succeed in the self-insured marketplace will be those that 1) ensure high-quality care for participating employees and 2) offer a real incentive for employees to travel internationally for medical care. Satori World Medical’s program specifically meets both of these requirements.

• Medical Quality: Satori World Medical’s Quality Assurance Program™ has been built to provide access to high-quality care and promote safety for every patient who undergoes a surgical procedure through its program. Satori World Medical only contracts with international hospitals that are JCI-accredited and has a full-time Chief Medical Officer on staff that has personally visited and performed due diligence at each of the international hospitals within its network. Additionally, the company has an active Medical Quality Advisory Board (MQAB) comprised of physicians who are proven leaders in their sub-specialty field. Satori’s MQAB helps to establish guidelines around medical travel eligibility.

• Incentives for Employers and Employees to Participate: Unlike any other medical travel benefit program available today, Satori World Medical is the first to actually provide a direct and meaningful financial incentive for employees who choose to receive care internationally through its program. By undergoing a surgical procedure at a participating, in-network international hospital, the patient is eligible to receive thousands of dollars of savings via an employer-funded Health Reimbursement Account (HRA). These HRA funds can then be used to offset future medical expenses such as deductibles, copays and more. The HRA funds are tax-free to the employee and tax-deductible to the employer.

It is promising to see such a positive response to medical tourism within the self-insured marketplace, and to recognize how well our program meets the specific healthcare delivery needs and challenges of today’s self-funded employers.