Foreign Travelers Flocking To Turkey

Posted by admin on Jun 18th, 2010 | 0 comments

In recent years, Turkey has developed a booming medical tourism industry offering quality healthcare at affordable prices, made accessible to Western Europeans and most especially inhabitants of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan as well as surrounding neighbors in Albania and Armenia and Georgia. Medical facilities within Turkey offer major surgical procedures and treatments for great savings (and availability of services) found in these countries.

Travelers from Central Europe and Russia take advantage of cosmetic and dental procedures, laser surgeries, eye treatment and cardio vascular research and health facilities in a country striving to take its place in the world economy and in the field of medical research and health care. Central locations such as Istanbul, Izmir and Kusadasi offer quality medical care for a multitude of treatments and procedures and offer higher quality service in modern and relaxed atmospheres.

With state of the art facilities, equipment and expertise, Turkey is building a medical tourism industry that attracts patients to Turkish clinics and some of the finest hospitals in Turkey, including the Florence Nightingale Hospital, internationally recognized for its outstanding orthopedics and vascular disease treatments. Fields of oncology and plastic surgery as well as the daVinci method of robotic heart and prostate surgeries are attracting world-wide attention to the growing reputation surrounding Turkey for the best service that still beats medical or health costs from throughout Europe and North America.

Turkey as a medical destination offer travelers from Russia, Middle Eastern and South African countries such as Nigeria, Egypt, and Iran and the “ikistan” countries quality healthcare that can’t be received at home. Turkmenistan has developed a five billion dollar medical health tourism project to create, grow and develop a unique center for health tourism including tourism facilities and accommodations, health centers, medical spas, and clinics to care for the influx of medical travelers seeking affordable, accessible, and quality care in a multitude of fields.

PlacidWay, a medical tourism portal, is dedicated to providing knowledge on the variety of medical treatments and procedures to be found in Turkey, as well as spread growing awareness on the excellent, accredited and certified training and experience of Turkish doctors, clinics, hospitals and other health care facilities.

Turkey is fast gaining a reputation of providing superlative medical and health care in many fields, including cosmetic and plastic surgery, cardiac care and procedures, vision, LASIK technology and orthopedics and dentistry, just to name a few. With state-of-the-art facilities located not only in her major cities such as Istanbul and Ankara, but scattered along the southern portion of the state along the Mediterranean, Turkish physicians and surgeons offer high class care and expertise to natives and international travelers. The majority of Turkish physicians and surgeons are trained in Europe or the United States, and offer experience and knowledge in new technologies and techniques.

In addition, medical costs for procedures and surgeries in Turkey offer international medical traveler’s huge savings that generally amount to as much as 50% to 75% on costs for the same surgeries and procedures in the U.S.

As today’s consumers demand more choices in medical care, locations such as Turkey and Croatia are bound to see a growth in the development of healthcare protocols, accreditations, facilities, and medical services provided for global travelers as well as those from central, western and Eastern Europe.

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Insurance Companies Have a Great Opportunity in Medical Travel

Posted by admin on May 31st, 2010 | 0 comments

With healthcare costs in the United States continuing to rise at higher rates than inflation, American health insurers are facing very tough times as there’s enormous pressure on their financials. Some allow these cost increases to impact their earnings as a means to gain share, others pass this on to customers as higher premiums, and yet others prefer to keep prices but creatively nudge deductibles, co-payments, and contract terms as to be able to survive in a fiercely competitive and controversial market. However, they must slowly acknowledge that an escape valve is found abroad.

As technology and information flows are shrinking our world, travel for healthcare is becoming universal. Americans looking for excellent but affordable medical or dental procedures find that neighboring countries have shown to have private healthcare facilities which offer very high quality care at great value. Even if US insurance companies realize this is an irreversible trend and understand that letting some of their clients choose to go overseas for surgery may offer a great opportunities to alleviate some of the strain, they are being too slow to adopt it as part of their strategy. Pushing insured clients to seek less expensive options abroad is not only looked down upon but sometimes illegal. What they don’t realize is that they are benefiting from this already and what they need is to align incentives a little better.

The story of one of our recent patients illustrates this point. Mr. Chris Moss, a Denver citizen who asked to remain anonymous, was very recently diagnosed with prostate cancer and advised by his doctor to seek immediate treatment. Having had no health problems in the past, this was his first call to Aetna Global Benefits, his employer-provided insurer. To his surprise, while the robotic prostatectomy surgery he desperately needed would only be covered 80% if performed in the U.S, leaving him with tough-to-cover medical bills of over $10,000, he could choose to have his surgery abroad and his insurer would pay 100% of it. Chris immediately began to examine overseas options, skipping consciously on everything that wouldn’t meet or exceed the quality of care he could receive in Denver and quickly found an option which: 1) offered top-notch care, technology, and surgeons’ experience, 2) is very close to home, 3) has English-speaking staff, and 4) offers the possibility of remotely consulting with the doctors beforehand.

Without knowing it, Chris quickly became a Medical Traveler, one of the hundreds of thousands of Americans that seek affordable healthcare abroad. As patients typically do not know where to start their search or what they’ll find, medical travel facilitators provide assistance in understanding which are the best options, getting price quotes, contacting doctors, booking medical trips, and making the healthcare visit run smoothly. It was through our Monterrey-focused firm called Travel For Care that Chris learned about his options in Mexico and had a seamless experience from research to bookings, and from checking in at the hospital to arriving back home. Two weeks after beginning his research, Chris’ cancer was being removed using the most advanced method the world of medicine knows today.

In this case, Chris is extremely happy to have spent about $1,000 in travel and accommodations when he would have spent easily over $10,000 in co-payments back in Denver. Likewise, his insurance company spent about $28,000 when it could have paid 80% of a $50,000 surgery, or about $40,000. The case is clear, the best healthcare outside of the US, complying with the same quality standards, is as inexpensive as to make paying 100% of it cheaper than paying 80% of the US cost. Although it is true that this type of policy and its 100% coverage abroad terms are not the typical health plan, it should be an eye opener for the industry. Let’s make it clear, that nobody was shoved to go abroad for surgery. Nothing illegal or looked-down-upon was done. All parties are happy (including the Mexicans involved). It is a simple case study for free markets and incentives. Perhaps insurers should inform holders of such policies that they have valuable options abroad. Perhaps all insurers should think of adding the “100% coverage abroad” feature to all policies and see how the market’s invisible hand actually lowers costs and therefore premiums. All in all, there are great opportunities abroad for insurers employing creativity the right way. The best part is that all are set to benefit: insurers, customers, and society as a whole.

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