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!