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

By Keith Mendoza, Director of Sales, Satori World Medical

An article published by The Associated Press earlier this week, entitled “Insurers aim to save from overseas medical tourism,” by Tom Murphy, discusses why more U.S. insurers are starting to offer medical travel programs as part of their existing health plans.

According to the article, the four largest commercial U.S. health insurers — with enrollments totaling nearly 100 million people — have either launched pilot programs offering overseas travel or explored it. Several smaller insurers and brokers also have introduced travel options for hundreds of employers around the country.

However, in his article, Murphy also points out that growth of medical tourism within the insured market has been slow in part because patients and employers have concerns about care quality and legal responsibility if something goes wrong. Also, patients who have traditional plans with low deductibles may have little incentive to take a trip.

I completely agree that these are valid and important issues that anyone should address and consider before participating in a global healthcare program. Leading global healthcare companies, such as Satori World Medical, are addressing these common reservations by developing global healthcare networks to provide patients access to high-quality care, as well as provide more incentives for employees/individuals when they choose to travel for medical care.

First I’d like to comment on the issues of medical quality and patient safety and how medical quality is being addressed by today’s global healthcare companies. Our company has established a high-performing global healthcare network of Joint Commission International (JCI) accredited hospitals. JCI is the international accreditation arm of the U.S. hospital accrediting body, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), which works to ensure that all international hospitals meet the same quality and safety standards as leading U.S. hospitals.

Other key features of Satori World Medical’s Quality Assurance Program™ include a highly qualified Medical Quality Advisory Board, full-time Chief Medical Officer (CMO) on staff that is a Board Certified surgeon, and onsite due diligence visits made by our CMO to each of our network hospitals. As part of our program, Satori World Medical arranges follow-up care for every patient before he or she even leaves the country.

But that then begs the question, even if the quality of care is high why would somebody choose to undergo a surgical procedure outside the U.S. unless he or she had a meaningful incentive to do so? This is one of the biggest challenges to integrating medical tourism programs into the insured marketplace.  Satori World Medical has created a unique financial shared savings model that offers employees a direct financial incentive for choosing to undergo surgery at any of the hospitals within the Satori Global Network™. We feel that providing not only the employer and payor with a meaningful economic benefit to participate in our medical travel program, but the employee as well, is critical to ensuring our program’s widespread adoption within the insured marketplace.

Through Satori’s Health & Shared Wealth Program™, U.S. employees actually share directly in the economic benefits of medical travel. Through the Satori program employees are eligible to receive thousands of dollars funded in a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) by selecting the Satori Global Network™. Qualifying procedures include cardiac, orthopedic and spinal surgeries that are typically expensive within the U.S hospital system.

Additionally, there is no recurring monthly or fixed cost to employers or payors to integrate the Satori Global Network™ into their existing health plan design. On average, the cost savings per procedure, range anywhere from 40-80 percent, including the costs of travel and hotel accommodations for the patient and a companion.

We applaud the Associated Press for focusing on this important topic and as the industry continues to mature, look forward to seeing more U.S. employers, payors and patients benefit from global healthcare programs.