Thread: Surgery too expensive? Go to India

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs. ... 12053/1011

Surgery too expensive? Go to India
by Michael Flynn, MLFLYNN@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM
published June 13, 2006 12:15 am

CANTON — To help cut its health care costs, Blue Ridge Paper Products is considering a program that gives employees the option of traveling to India to receive medical care.

“If the due diligence and feasibility checks out positively, then we plan to offer this as an option,” said Darrell Douglas, the company’s vice president of human resources.

The possibility of significant savings has led Blue Ridge Paper to consider the plan, which includes company-paid travel and lodging for a family member and the patient to undergo approved procedures at an internationally accredited hospital in New Delhi or elsewhere in India.

The kicker for the patient is the opportunity to share in up to 25 percent of those savings, which could amount to thousands of dollars for a hip procedure that costs $50,000 in North Carolina, but only about $18,000 in India, including the related travel expenses for two people.

To look into the program, Blue Ridge Paper is working with IndUShealth, a Raleigh company that coordinates overseas health care in Indian hospitals for American patients.

“We’re not exporting health care to India as much as importing competition in the United States,” said company President Tom Keesling, a former hospital CEO who helped launch IndUShealth last year.

The number of Americans traveling to countries such as India and Thailand for health care is rising, drawing increasing interest in what has been dubbed “medical tourism.”

“It is a leading-edge type of service that’s just beginning to get some attention,” said senior health care consultant Steve Graybill of the Charlotte office of Mercer Health & Benefits, a New York-based consulting firm.

Contact Michael Flynn at 828-232-2935 or via e-mail at mlflynn@ashevill.gannett.com.

Gee....remember the time when people traveled here for good health care?