Medical Tourism Rising
Posted on Tue, Nov 23, 2010
Despite the recent passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, medical tourism continues to rise. Medical expenses are continuing to climb, and as a result, more employers will have to shift a bigger portion of medical care costs their workers to stay profitable. Medical travel has become a very viable and attractive option to employers and their workers, helping consumers handle the increased burden that they must now bear.
Over the past 10 years, traveling outside of the U.S. to obtain medical care has gained popularity, with travelers seeking both specialized surgeries and elective surgeries, such as major dental work, cosmetic procedures, bar iatric procedures, cardiac procedures and joint replacement procedures.
There are numerous factors that are contributing to this trend, including the ability to lessen one's out of pocket expenses for surgeries that are typically high in cost, the cultural diversity of the workforce in the U.S., and the ease in which global healthcare can be incorporated into a medical insurance plan design.
On average, a surgery performed outside of the U.S. saves 40%-80% over the cost of the same surgery in the United States. With more employers offering a consumer directed medical plan, such as a health reimbursement account or a health savings account, it is in the best interest of employers to keep medical costs as low as possible.
There are some facilitators of medical travel that work directly with health care brokers, employers and medical insurance plans in order to offer medical tourism to the employers' employees.
It's become commonplace for employers to provide a 100% benefit to workers who travel to obtain lower medical costs, by waiving all out of pocket expenses and deductible costs for the employee for surgeries. Since the employer lowers costs by offering a medical travel option, then the employee reaps the financial rewards as well.
One way employers do this is by using a health reimbursement account, high deductible health plan or an HSA, which enables the employee to share the savings for their surgery. For example, the employee may be eligible for their employer to deposit $2000-$8000 into a health reimbursement account because of the lower cost of the surgery outside of the U.S. The funds deposited into that account are tax free for the worker, and tax deductible for the company, and it offers the worker access to money that can help offset health care expenses in the future.