More on Medical Outsourcing
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The National Post has an article in this Saturday’s edition about medtourism to India. I’ve blogged this a few times, most recently here. The article is a nicely detailed piece on the development of medical offshoring in India, and the experiences of one B.C. man, in search of a new knee, in particular. Two quotes in particular caught my eye:
These are early days for MediTours. A few months ago, the company thought it had its first customer, a B.C. man waiting for knee surgery. But when the man told his doctor he planned to go to India, the MD promptly pushed him to the top of the list.
Exsqueeze me? It’s about threats? Waiting lists are about threats?
But more troubling:
There are plenty of people back home who disapprove of the Smiths’ decision [to obtain surgery in India]. Like Dr. Albert Schumacher, president of the Canadian Medical Association. He’s a critic of Canada’s long wait times, but he’s equally concerned about patients turning to foreign hospitals.
“The problem is that there are some 200-odd medical schools in India,” Dr. Schumacher says. “Some are probably very good. Some may not be very good. We have no ability to measure that.”
To clarify, Canadian patients should, apparently, not go to India for surgery because Canadian doctors are uneducated - OK, ignorant - about the quality of medical care there. OK, this is not entirely fair - medical care needs to be regulated, we understand. But if the Canadian healthcare industry and government can’t get on it, citizens will. Please, no more studies. Just get on it.
Schumacher’s comments do remind me of this quote, troubling for all the same wrong reasons, which I included in my recent post about legal outsourcing:
With the work being done in India becoming more sophisticated, some American attorneys are skeptical of American firms that use outsourced legal services. “I think a lawyer has a responsibility over his work and he just can’t delegate it,†said former ABA president Jerome Shestack, now the head of litigation at the Philadelphia firm of Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen. “The problem with outsourcing is, how do you keep control over it? How do you see how it’s being done?â€
This is what happens, of course, when one tortures logic and evokes fear in order to serve one’s self-interest - common sense gets turned on its head. Patients and legal work are going to India because it makes sense. Legislators, doctors and lawyers who don’t understand why should educate themselves. Soon.
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My name is Frank Mitchell and I would like to give one solution for the uninsured/underinsured crises that is hurting the bottom line in Texas hospitals.
Section 1: will go though some of the factual pricing information that the uninsured expenses will cost the state, the hospitals, and the people how are insured. Section 2: will give a solution to help the uninsured, insured, hospitals, and the state
Section 1:
Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured people with 5.4 million people. With the ever growing percentage climbing the
Taxpayers and those with insurance, along with their employers, pay extra for the care of the uninsured. Families USA, a Washington D.C.-based patient advocacy group, estimates the total cost for Texas came to more than $9.2 billion in 2005. Of that the uninsured patients and there families paid for about half, with 4.6 billion, The Government health programs paid 1.6, and the people with private health insurance subsidized the remaining, with 3 billion.
In 2005 the, typical premiums for family health insurance coverage provided by private employers included an extra $922 in premiums due to the cost of care for the uninsured. In Texas, because of the very large percentage of uninsured, that figure is $1,551 and according to the Texas Medical Association is estimated to rise to $2,786 by 2010. With these high premiums, the Texans who are barely able to cover the $992, are being forced to not purchase insurance because of the overwhelming percentage of uninsured.
The uninsured are not only making it hard on the people that are insured but also the hospitals. One of the biggest reasons that many of the uninsured do not go to the doctor is because they know that if there is bad news, and they do need a surgical procedure, they will not be able to afford it, so they rather put it off. The other reason is because they can’t afford to go to the doctor because they will be charged up to 3-4 times the amount that the insured would be charged. Because the uninsured can not afford to go to the doctor they wait until it is too late and the problem is out of control and they need medical treatment immediately. This often results in death.
Because the uninsured are not going to the doctor for regular visits and are waiting until the problem escalades to the point that they need to be taken to the emergency room, there is an overwhelming amount of overcrowded emergency waiting rooms. This results in the hospital having to give an amount of charitable and bad debt, which the hospitals can not afford. Thus, the hospital starts to perform surgery in the red and autumnally results in the hospital having to close the E.R. With local E.R.’s being closed means that the people that need immediate medical attention (insured and non-insured) may not get the treatment, which is necessary, in time. The charges that the hospital has to endure average between $30 million to $55 + million a year. These are substantial charges that the hospital has to makeup for somehow and the result usually leads to even more sky rocketing health care cost.
Results:
So far we have seen,
• That Texas has the highest percentage of all the states
• That the uninsured rack-up unpaid chares up to the $10 billion area that has to be covered by the local government, people that possess private health, and the hospitals.
• The uninsured pay 3-4 times as much as the insured, which leads to the emergency treatment.
• The chain reaction that the hospitals encounter from charity work and bad debt. The $30–$55 million deficit results in the closing of emergency rooms and can ultimately result in the closing of the hospital, higher healthcare prices, and a lack of medical attention for emendate and critical healthcare needs.
• The increasing cost for individuals and employees for health care insurance
• That the uninsured problem is growing every year
Section 2:
One option that the uninsured have but do not have information about is Medical Tourism. America Medical Outsourcing /AMO is at the leading for-front of this new (to Americans) treatment in Texans. AMO is in current negotiations with G.E. Health in bringing North American patients to India. Last year more than 500,000 people chose to receive treatment overseas and is predicted to be a $10-$12 billion industry by 2010.
AMO has joined with 7 state of the art hospitals that are American accredited (JCAHO/JCI) health care facilitators in India and Thailand. The American accreditation means that the hospitals meet and exceed the safety and success rate expectations of the hospitals in the U.S.
The procedures are 50%-80% off the cost of what they would be if they were preformed in the U.S. Because they are so affordable the patient is allowed to buy a plain ticket, receive the treatment, wait until it is safe for them to travel back home, and still only pay for a fraction of the cost that it would have been in the home town.
(i.e.) Many upper/middle class and poor Americans can not afford a $250,000 heart surgery but would be more likely to afford a $23,000 heart procedure. The same goes for a $40,000 hip or knee replacement but are likely to afford a $7,500 hip or knee replacement. Another big area of treatment that AMO could assist in is with the 14 people that die every day because they did not receive an organ transplant.
Why work and refer your uninsured patients to AMO
• AMO can help with the hospitals bottom line
• AMO can help get the patients the care that is needed
• AMO is Affiliated hospitals are all Joint Commission (JCAHO/JCI) and Harvard Medical International (HMI) accredited
• AMO Is free to the patient
• AMO will assist in making the travel arrangements
• AMO will help the patient in obtaining all the medical documentation that is required from the hospitals overseas
• AMO will keep all patient medical records confidential
Summary
By recommending AMO to your uninsured patients this could drastically cut the expenses that the hospital has to endure for charity work and bad debt and at the same time get help to the people that need it. AMO is simply asking for the opportunity to take some of the burden of the hospitals and again, get help to the people that can not afford it. To further view any other information about American Medical Outsourcing, LLC please go to our website americanmedicaloutsourcing.com. Please consider this help that AMO is offering you and the uninsured and we look forward to hearing from you soon.
Frank Mitchell