Be sure to check our Events page for our up-to-date travel itinerary.  Hope you to see you at one of these upcoming events.  Come experience Satori!

• September 27th, 2011 – Dr. Ron Johnson, Chief Medical Officer at Satori World Medical will be participating in a round table of companies that are doing international business hosted by The Daily Transcript, San Diego’s #1 source for daily business news, data and information.
• October 9-12, 2011 – Satori World Medical will be exhibiting at SIIA’s 31^st Annual Conference and Expo in Phoenix, AZ. Visit us at Booth 907 and experience the next movement in healthcare delivery.
• October 30-November 1, 2011 – Satori World Medical will be exhibiting at Booth 1129  at the 57th Annual IFEB Employee Benefits Conference in New Orleans.

Samantha Davis, a student at Brigham Young University and daughter of Lee Davis, an employee at Imperial County Office of Education, recently traveled to Centre Metropolitain de Chirurgie in Montreal, Canada for laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery. Satori World Medical coordinated Davis’ care which is now part of ICSVEBA’s employee medical plan.

The surgery was performed by Dr. Nicolas Christou, a world-renowned bariatric surgeon. Dr. Christou is an accomplished bariatric surgeon and is a member of many prestigious societies including the American Surgical Association, The Canadian Association of General Surgeons, The American College of Surgeons and the American Society of Bariatric Surgery. Dr. Christou is part of Satori World Medical’s network of hospitals and physicians.

Weight loss procedures offered by Satori’s global network include gastric bypass, lap band and gastric sleeve. Davis saved a significant amount of money using Satori World Medical’s network for gastric bypass surgery. The patient’s entire medical costs, as well as the patient and companion’s airfare, hotel, ground transportation and insurance were covered under Satori’s agreement with the patient’s healthcare plan.

Watch our patient’s story on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/SatoriWorldMed

For the most recent news and discussion on Satori World Medical “Like” them on Facebook, follow on Twitter and join their LinkedIn group.

Next week, Satori World Medical will be attending the 2011 SIIA TPA & MGU/Excess Insurer Executive Forum in Palm Desert, CA. If you will be at the conference or in the Palm Desert area from April 13-15 and would like to schedule an appointment to meet with a Satori team member during the conference, please contact sales@satoriworldmedical.com. See you there!

By Ron Johnson, M.D., F.A.C.S., Chief Medical Officer, Satori World Medical

Satori World Medical is a payer-supported, employer-sponsored, and consumer-choice medical tourism facilitator and global healthcare network.  We use the Joint Commission International (JCI) as a “gating” issue, and our Quality Assurance Program, assisted by our Medical Quality Advisory Board and Nurse Patient Advocacy Program, goes beyond this to ensure excellent patient outcomes and service at our International Centers of Excellence. 

JCI, the international arm of the Joint Commission Resources, was created in 1994, awarded its first international accreditation in 1999, and now has accredited over 300 institutions around the world.  In 2005 the World Health Organization designated the Joint Commission and the Joint Commission International as the WHO Collaborating Centre for Patient Safety Solutions, and in 2008 the JCI announced its accreditation by the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua). 

One of the reasons Satori uses JCI as a gating issue for quality and participation in our network is our focus on the financially sponsored (U.S.) patient.  U.S. payers are familiar with the Joint Commission and their standards and surveys.  Similarly, the American Medical Association and the American College of Surgeons are two of the largest and most influential physician organizations in the U.S., so when they independently came out with guidelines for medical travel, we were pleased that we already met or exceeded them.  U.S. payers know and trust the AMA and ACS on quality matters.  These are important guidelines, and Satori’s Quality Assurance Program adds on-site due diligence visits – to review JCI accreditation reports, hospital performance measures, physician credentials and outcomes, interview hospital management teams, and tour and evaluate clinical areas including the operating rooms – as well as our own proprietary medical travel and procedure eligibility guidelines, monitoring of quality and clinical outcomes and continuous quality improvement.

Working collaboratively with our comprehensive quality program, all network hospitals and physicians share in the common goal of excellent patient outcomes and services.

Medical tourism, also known as medical travel or global healthcare, is the rapidly-growing practice of traveling across international borders to obtain medical care. Below are the top questions I am asked when speaking to clients regarding implementing a medical travel benefit into an employee benefit plan.

1.       What can a medical travel benefit provide my employees?

A medical travel or medical tourism benefit can provide your employees an additional option in their health plans. Typically, a procedure through Satori’s Global Network is 40-80% less than US hospital and physician fees including medical and travel costs. Your employees receive high quality healthcare with access to the top surgeons in the world and the employee can take a companion with them. There are no co-pays, co-insurance or deductibles passed onto the employee and your company can realize real significant savings.

2.       Why choose Satori World Medical?

Satori’s unique Business & Care model is unlike any other medical tourism company in the marketplace.  What sets Satori apart from other medical travel facilitators is Satori’s Global Healthcare Network. Our network is comprised of the “Best of the Best” hospitals around the world and our robust Quality Program, led by our full-time Chief Medical Officer, ensures optimal delivery of care. In addition, our proprietary Health & Shared Wealth Program shares the economic savings with all insurers, employers, and individuals, and our program includes world-class client services and a companion care program. Satori offers fixed price case rates that include air travel, luxury hotel accommodations and ground transportation for the patient and companion, all on a convenient single bill in US dollars. 

3.       Are there any costs associated with adding Satori World Medical to our medical plan?

There are absolutely no charges associated with adding Satori to a medical plan. Satori World Medical does not charge a Per Employee Per Month (PEPM), network access fee, or rental fee for our program.  There are no monthly or recurring costs for embedding Satori into a health plan. There is no downside to adding the Satori Global Healthcare Network. It truly is a new innovative benefit for employers to provide their employees.

In this month’s online issue of Agent’s Sales Journal, Steven Lash, President & CEO of Satori World Medical provides insight on what is in store for the medical travel industry in 2011.  Below is part of the feature “7 Markets in 2011: Industry Experts Predict the Future”.

Read the entire article in the online December issue of Agent’s Sales Journal here.

As we prepare to enter the New Year, there is one word that comes to mind when taking a look at projections in global health care: growth.

Health care as we know it is changing and those changes will be implemented during 2011. While many of the changes impacting global health care stem from U.S. health care reform, there are also paradigm shifts in the acceptance of medical travel as a realistic option for receiving high-quality medical care, and at the same time being responsive to lowering health care expense.

According to a report published in the August 2010 Journal of Health Affairs, physicians trained in other countries provide care that is just as good as U.S. doctors. The article reported that patients of foreign-born, internationally trained medical school graduates had the lowest death rates. Patients of U.S. citizens who attended medical school in other countries had the highest death rates; U.S.-born and trained doctors fell in the middle. Moreover, 25 percent of all doctors practicing in the United States are educated abroad.

Due to these findings and the ethnic diversity in the United States, more consumers are accepting medical travel as a viable ay to receive high-quality health care. Medical tourism, also called medical travel and global health care, has seen steady growth in the past three years. Industry experts anticipate the growth to continue at a 35 percent year-over-year growth rate.

Don’t forget to check your email for the December issue of Medical Travel Market Watch, or if you would like to subscribe to the newsletter, please visit the home page of www.satoriworldmedical.com and enter an e-mail address in the newsletter sign-up field.

Below is part of the President’s Perspective segment from the current issue. To read the entire newsletter click here.

As 2010 comes to a close and reflecting on the events and activities this past year, I am reminded that innovation can be more evolutionary then revolutionary. This past year has seen health care reform become the law of the land and our economy (and the global economy) suffering the worst recession in several generations.  It has been quite a year.  Despite these incredible landscape-altering events, I see a continual and steady growth in the global health care sector and am bullish about the adoption curve for our program.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that was signed into law in March of this year changes the way health care is delivered and financed in the U.S. will play a significant role in the growth of medical travel.  Although the PPACA is phased in over several years with many key provisions not fully effective until 2014, we are already beginning to see the changes it will bring to businesses, insurance companies and consumers.  With the addition of 40 million Americans having access to health insurance, there will be increased demand for health care services. This coupled with an already existing shortage of nurses and doctors and an aging baby boomer population, queuing for medical care will be a natural by-product, making medical travel an attractive option.

Satori is always looking for suggestions, feedback and guest columnists for Medical Travel Market Watch. People with comments regarding the newsletter can send them to newsletter@satoriworldmedical.com.

In this month’s issue of Agent’s Sales Journal, Satori World Medical provides insight on why medical travel is a viable option for every health plan.  Below is part of the article “Innovations in Employer-Funded Health Care: Medical Tourism”.

Read the entire article in the November issue of Agent’s Sales Journal, or read it online at: http://www.asjonline.com/Exclusives/2010/11/Pages/Innovations-in-EmployerFunded-Health-Care-Medical-Tourism-.aspx

The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) addresses access, but most health care economists agree that medical expenses will continue to rise. As this happens, more employers will be forced to shift a larger portion of health care costs to their employees in order to remain profitable. Medical travel, which has received increased interest from U.S. residents and employers, is now a highly attractive and viable option to businesses and their employees that may help consumers deal with the increased load that they must bear.

Medical travel defined

The practice of travelling across international borders to obtain health care – medical travel, also known as medical tourism or global health care – has increased significantly in popularity over the past decade. Travelers seek both elective and specialized surgical procedures, such as joint replacement; cardiac, bariatric, and cosmetic procedures; and major dental work.

A number of factors are driving this trend, including:

• The high quality of international medical care and the ability to reduce a U.S. patient’s out-of-pocket expenses for typically high-cost surgical procedures
• The cultural diversity of the US workforce
• The ease of the adoption and integration of global health care benefits into a plan design