By Steven Lash, President & CEO of Satori World Medical

At next week’s American Health Insurance Plans Institute Conference (AHIP Institute 2009, June 3-5, 2009) in San Diego, thousands of health care executives and companies from around the nation, including Satori World Medical, will convene to discuss U.S. Health Care Reform, among other pressing global issues surrounding health care.

I am particularly excited to see that the globalization of health care will be among the topics at the forefront of this year’s conference agenda. As governments, employers and individuals around the world continue to face skyrocketing health care costs, rapidly aging populations and increasing consumer demands, more nations such as the U.S., are turning to the private sector for new ways to provide access to high quality health care procedures.

During AHIP, Satori World Medical’s Strategic Advisory Board Member, Stuart Altman, Ph. D., will lead a panel discussion on issues surrounding the globalization of health care. Specific topics that will be discussed include:

• Growing choice among U.S. consumers to travel internationally in order to obtain high quality, accessible and affordable health care.
• Emergence of leading-edge technology combined with performance-based initiatives critical to improving the delivery of health care around the world.
• Global expansion of health care and things that need to be considered in order to make global health care a real and viable choice for all Americans.
• Challenges and opportunities for reducing health care costs while simultaneously increasing the quality of health care delivery.

Due to the conference’s important focus on global health care this year, Satori World Medical is also thrilled to be the only global health care network/medical travel company exhibiting at AHIP 2009.

Specific topics related directly to global health care, which I hope will engender further discussion include:

• How and why more U.S. payors and employers are adopting medical tourism and integrating global health care programs into their overall employee benefit plan design;
• International health care quality and how hospitals outside the U.S. are able to deliver equivalent, or superior, quality health care services at a fraction of the cost domestically; and
• Where medical tourism specifically fits into the future of U.S. Healthcare Reform.

While medical travel is still in its early stages, the increased focus on global health care among top leaders in the industry, is a testament to the growing and significant role that global health care is continuing to play in U.S. Health Care Reform. The fact that Satori World Medical is leading this important industry transformation is very exciting for us.

Satori World Medical will be exhibiting at Booth #921. Join our executives for an insightful conversation about medical tourism and how global health care programs are helping to bring high quality, cost effective health care solutions to U.S. plan sponsors/employers and their employees.

We’ll see you next week in San Diego!

How global healthcare programs provide high quality and affordable healthcare solutions

By Jessica Yarbrough, Marketing & Communications Manager of Satori World Medical

Soaring U.S. healthcare costs, coupled by a crippled economy, continue to put U.S. Healthcare Reform at the top of our nation’s agenda.

U.S. government economists predict that public and private health spending will hit $2.5 trillion this year, taking up a 17.6 percent share of gross domestic product. (Source: Reuters, “Obama sets up formal office for healthcare reform,” Apr. 9, 2009) That ranks the U.S. the most expensive nation in the world for healthcare.

For large multinational corporations, footing healthcare costs presents an enormous expense. General Motors, for instance, covers more than 1.1 million current and former employees, and the company says it spent roughly $5.6 billion on healthcare expenses in 2006. (Source: Associated Press, “Upfront costs complicate Obama’s health care plan,” by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, May 10, 2009) GM’s retiree health care expenses alone add up to $50 billion a year.

Meanwhile, as healthcare costs continue to rise more employers are being forced to shift a larger portion of the costs of healthcare to their employees in order to remain profitable. As a result, America’s employees have become responsible for a greater share of their own healthcare expenses (deductibles, co-pays, co-insurances, etc.)

How Can Medical Tourism Help Address America’s Healthcare Crisis?

One concept that is continuing to gain widespread appeal among the U.S. public and private sectors is medical tourism, whereby patients travel to hospitals outside the U.S. to receive quality medical care at a fraction of the cost domestically.

A number of factors are driving this movement, including the high quality of care that is available internationally, the ability to dramatically reduce a U.S. patient’s out-of-pocket expenses for typical high-cost surgical procedures, as well as the adoption and integration of global healthcare benefits into plan sponsors’ plan design.

What’s particularly interesting is just how well aligned global healthcare programs are with the key established principles of Obama’s Healthcare Reform agenda.

For example, President Obama has announced three bedrock requirements for real healthcare reform, which Satori World Medical’s business and care model specifically addresses.

·       Reduce Costs: Rising healthcare costs are crushing the budgets of governments, businesses, individuals and families and they must be brought under control. U.S. patients now have the ability to undergo high quality surgical procedures performed at International Centers of Excellence through the Satori Global Network™ and tremendously reduce their medical expenses. Additionally, the individual seeking care actually receives a portion of the savings through an employer-funded, tax-advantaged Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) which can be used to offset their future medical expenses. 

·       Guarantee Choice: Americans must have the freedom to keep whatever doctor and healthcare plan they have, or to select a new doctor or healthcare plan if they choose. Consumer choice is extremely important because employers, health plans and policy-makers recognize that unless consumers are more engaged in decisions about their health and the costs associated with those decisions, costs will continue to soar.

Satori World Medical is directly aligned with this fundamental principle because consumer choice is one of the main hallmarks of its program. The Satori Global Network™ has been specifically designed, so that it can be seamlessly integrated with any existing domestic employer-funded health plan.  It does not replace an existing health plan, but rather augments it to provide individuals with more healthcare choices.

·       Ensure Affordable Care for All: All Americans must have access to quality and affordable healthcare. That’s why global healthcare programs make so much sense. Any employer can participate in the Satori World Medical program because it can be implemented without any startup costs to the employer or payor, and with no out-of-pocket costs for the employee (including all hotel and travel for the patient and a companion).

The ability to provide all Americans with access to quality, affordable healthcare is no longer an option, it’s a necessity. While global healthcare certainly isn’t the only answer to solving our nation’s healthcare crisis, clearly global healthcare programs, such as those offered by Satori World Medical, make a lot of sense.

By Steven Lash, President & CEO of Satori World Medical

When Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, was asked by Larry King on the March 5 episode of Larry King Live to comment on the Obama Administration’s health care reform plan and America’s current health care challenges, medical tourism was at the top of the list. Below is an excerpt of the transcript from the March 5 segment of Larry King Live. Dr. Gupta said:

He (President Obama) is drawing an inextricable relationship between the economy and health care. As people talk — the economy is issue No. 1, as we talk about all the time. But he’s making the point, I think, and he has been for some time, even while he was campaigning, that you cannot talk about the economy without talking about health care.

Businesses have to provide health care insurance for their employees. It is often very difficult for them to do that, in addition to trying to reach some sort of profit from their product. So I – that message, I think, has been pretty loud and clear, and I think it is resonating.

He’s also talking about the fact that you can’t fix the health care system without bringing down costs of health care overall. And since you brought it up, I was just in India, and one of the stories that I was doing was about medical tourism. Here is a good example — 750,000 Americans leave the United States every year to go abroad for life-saving operations. Why? Mainly because of cost. It can be up to a tenth of the cost in some of these countries such as India, such as Singapore.

Dr. Gupta is correct. The potential cost savings are enormous. Take open heart surgery, for instance. The cost of a heart-valve replacement surgery in a U.S. hospital can be anywhere from $60-$100K, yet that same procedure in India costs just a tenth of that, and while still meeting or even exceeding the patient care and quality standards and outcomes of  top U.S. hospitals. In fact, many of the doctors who perform heart surgery at international hospitals are U.S./U.K trained and Board Certified. Furthermore, the technology and equipment in these hospitals are absolutely state of the art.

So can global health care really help America’s troubled health care, and how?

Well I believe the answer to that question is yes.  As the medical travel industry begins to mature, we continue to see the following trends.

While medical travel will certainly never replace the need for quality, affordable health care in the U.S., it certainly offers many Americans a viable alternative to accessing high quality health care at a fraction of the cost than in the U.S.

1. President Obama’s health care reform program: At the top of President Barack Obama’s priority list for America is ensuring quality and affordable healthcare for all Americans. This will most certainly accelerate the acceptance and demand for medical travel and global health programs. 

2. Increased consumer education: More and more Americans are becoming educated about the high quality care that is available outside the U.S. Today’s health care consumers are becoming more informed, which has lessened the concern over patient quality and safety at international hospitals.

3. Industry’s expansion into employer-sponsored health plans: Medical travel programs, while once primarily catering to the uninsured market, are beginning to become available to U.S. employees as part of their employer-funded health plan. In fact, Satori World Medical has created the first global health care program that actually shares the financial savings with all stakeholders, including the employee.

The cost of undergoing a procedure through Satori World Medical is anywhere from 44 to 84% less expensive than in the U.S. (including the costs of travel and 4-star hotel accommodations for the patient and a companion) Therefore, by selecting the Satori Global Network™ for their surgical procedure, not only will the individual/employee not incur any out-of-pocket cost whatsoever but they will also have the opportunity to  receive thousands of dollars funded into a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) that is established by their employer. These funds deposited into the HRA are tax-free to the employee and can be used to cover future medical expenses including premiums, deductibles, co-pays, and more.

4. Growing demand for Consumer-Driven Health Care: Americans are now demanding greater control over decisions that affect their health and medical care. “Employers, health plans and policymakers recognize that unless consumers are more engaged in decisions about their health and the costs associated with those decisions, costs will continue to soar.” (Deloitte)  High-deductible plans, skyrocketing premiums, and increasing co-pays and co-insurances are prompting patients to act more like traditional consumers.

5. Explosion of retiring baby boomers, also known as the “Silver Tsunami”: The first wave of the 80 million baby boomers heading towards retirement also referred to as the “Silver Tsunami” phenomenon, will result in a significant population shift and a considerable bulge in healthcare expenditures.

While medical travel will certainly never replace the need for quality, affordable health care in the U.S., it certainly offers many Americans a viable alternative to accessing high quality health care at a fraction of the cost than in the U.S.

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

The new Administration has placed high priority on healthcare reform, to lower costs and improve quality.  Maybe a recent article in Health Affairs (Lessons from India in Organizational Innovation:  A Tale of Two Heart Hospitals, Sept. 08) can help.  Authors from the Duke University schools of law, business and medicine describe how organizational innovation has made Indian heart hospitals a low cost, high quality success story.  Can the US do the same? 

The Indian market is different – with over a billion people and a large middle class, only 14% has health insurance, so Indian hospitals understand that their services have to meet the middle-class family budget.  Lower labor costs are important, but much of their success is due to developing and improving innovative organizational structures to provide care.

• Hospital Management Structure.  Many leading healthcare organizations in India are led by dynamic physician-executives, and there is much more collaboration between physicians and senior administrators than in the US.  Hospital management teams come with experience in the hotel industry to give a more focused customer/patient approach.
• Pricing.  Hospitals are competing on both price and quality – they have developed differential pricing, to target different income sectors and maintain volume and efficiency.  Fixed or capitated pricing is offered, to allow patients and payers to “shop” for procedures and compare prices.  This also shifts financial risk to the service providers, and makes them continually evaluate cost drivers and develop new, innovative approaches to care delivery.
• Drive for efficiency in supply and delivery chains.  The competitive market and fixed costs demand efficiency, increased production volumes, with reengineering service delivery models to maximize use of capital equipment.  Some develop and manufacture routine equipment to reduce costs.  There is considerable investment in information technology.
• Competing on quality, paying for mistakes.  Because Indian hospitals compete on both quality and price, hospital managers have instituted quality assurance and improvement as integral to the business models.  As one physician said, in this business model, “we can’t afford to have complications.”

Can US hospitals learn from these Indian successes, where quality care is provided at a fraction of the cost in the US?  There are barriers to this experimentation, entrepreneurialism and technological progress.

• Medicare and insurance payment policies.  The Medicare DRG payment system does not reward innovation or efficiency or price flexibility.  Private insurance does little to stimulate price competition.  Innovation – new procedures or delivery models – is discouraged.
• Legal Barriers.  The Stark Amendment, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, and other laws stifle physician ownership and investment in new facilities and discourage their involvement in corporate strategy – both beneficial in the Indian heart hospitals. 
• Tort standards.  Even the US medical malpractice system discourages innovation – the “community standard” often locks in expensive and conventional practices.

The Duke University authors conclude that “although most innovation-intensive industries have enjoyed a history of producing new generations of industry leaders, offering dramatic improvements in both capability and affordability, the US health sector has not.  The US health sector, however, may soon resemble other innovation-intensive industries in one important respect: it may find its industry leaders displaced by Indian offerings.  If dramatic cost differences persist between procedures performed in Indian and US hospitals, it might not be long before employers and insurers begin sending patients to India for treatment.”