Medical tourism gets boost from OFWs: health official

AN OFFICIAL from the Department of Health (DOH) said stakeholders in the country’s health and wellness industry should not rely on the European and American markets since the Philippines already has a “natural market” for the industry.

“We should appreciate that the Philippines’s medical tourism industry is sustainable because of the overseas Filipino workers (OFW) who are coming to avail themselves of medical and wellness products here,” said Anthony Calibo, manager of the DOH’s medical tourism program.  Continue reading here http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/medical-tourism-gets-boost-ofws-health-official


Read more here RP medtourism anchors hopes on Global Pinoys

Medical tourism in the Philippines has huge potentials but it is growing rather slow.

This sentiment was expressed separately by Ms. Evelyn Yumol, head of business development of Makati Medical Center, and Jun Amistoso, marketing director of Asian Hospital which has been owned 40 percent since 2002 by investors from Thailand.

They come to the Philippines and they pay 40-50 percent less while being pampered by the world-renowned friendly manners of nurses and even orderlies.  Continue reading here http://www.malaya.com.ph/12042009/busi1.html

Ailing U.S. economy delivers a blow to 'medical tourism'

From USA TODAY    MOST ELECT TO STAY PUT

A survey of consumers in 2009 found:
 9% likely to travel outside the USA to have an elective surgical procedure if they could save 50% or more;
69% not likely to travel outside the USA for an elective surgical procedure.
Source: Deloitte Center for Health Solutions

Fewer U.S. patients are traveling abroad for non-emergency medical procedures, such as hip replacements or cosmetic surgery, because of the recession.

From 2007 to 2009, the number of Americans traveling abroad for elective medical procedures is expected to have fallen as much as 13.6%, according to a report by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, a research center focused on trends in the health care system.

Rising transportation costs and decreased consumer incomes and savings probably contributed to the fall in medical tourism, the report says. During the recession, patients also may have opted to forgo non-emergency procedures, the bulk of medical tourism.

In 2007, about 750,000 Americans traveled abroad for medical care, many seeking procedures that are 30%-70% cheaper abroad, even with the cost of travel, Deloitte research shows. In 2008, as the U.S. economy stalled, the number fell to 540,000.

The report projects an increase by the end of 2009 to about 648,000 patients – still 13.6% fewer than in 2007.

The Deloitte Center also predicts the number of American medical tourists will rise by 35% each year through 2012.

Pent-up demand and improvements in international medical care will likely fuel the rise, says Paul Keckley, executive director of the center. Many international physicians are trained in the USA, then return to their home countries to practice, he says.

 

Continue reading here   http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-11-30-Medicaltourism30_st_N.htm

Medical tourism prospects bright

Tags: philippine cebu Medical tourism prospects bright

The prospects of promoting Cebu as a medical tourism destination showed much promise in yesterday’s “Medical & Dental/Health & Wellness Forum”which highlighted the city’s has advances in medical care.

Cebu hospitals offer advanced technology in performing Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) or laparoscopic surgery, laser eye surgery, dermatology and cosmetic surgery, dental implants and cosmetic dentistry as well as a hospital base drug, detoxification and rehabilitation center.

They also charge a lesser fee for these operations than other countries.

Laparoscopic surgery, according to Dr. Henry Chua, is the performance of surgical procedures through small incisions with the assistance of a video camera and special thin instruments.

Chua said that Laparoscopic surgery may cost a patient more at the start than the conventional open surgery but it’s more cost effective.

Laparoscopic surgery uses smaller incisions which mean faster recovery for patients, less time spent at the hospital and less risk of infection.

Most hospitals in Cebu City are capable of doing laparoscopic surgery.

Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital (CDUH) has a laparoscopic surgery department, which ranks third in the country next to Makati Medical Center and St. Luke’s Hospital.

CDUH is also at the forefront of laser eye surgery with its Centre for Sight where LASIK or the Laser Assisted in Situ Keratomileusis which provides patients with a 20/20 vision and advanced cataract surgery is also done in the center.

Dr. Potenciano “Yong” Larrazabal III, said the center is equipped with instruments that hospitals abroad used, however, services are offered at a much lesser fee making it easy to attract foreign patients.

Laser eye surgery could be offered here for less than $1,000 for both eyes, while abroad, it would cost about $2,500 for each eye.

So far, 25 percent of the center’s patients are Europeans, 15 percent are Australian, five percent are Americans and another five percent are Asians.http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/enterprise/view/20091106-234584/Medical-tourism-prospects-bright

Medical tourism: Outsourcing your health

Tags: Medical tourism, outsourcing your helath

Pitching lower costs, ‘international hospitals’ are trying to make inroads into the U.S. healthcare system. But are they just a remedy for insurance companies?

At a luxury hotel conference center in Century City last week, “international hospitals” from Singapore to South America set up half an acre of colorful display booths in an attempt to attract more business from American insurers and employers. Glossy brochures and videos offered hip replacements, cancer treatments and cardiac care in Turkey, Thailand or Costa Rica. Send a patient and a companion on business class, the basic pitch went, and we’ll give them deluxe private rooms, a concierge and a driver. You’ll still save half or more of the U.S. cost — tens of thousands of dollars.

The name for this is medical tourism. It’s not a phrase that has come up openly in the national debate on healthcare reform. But the medical tourism industry has its hopes set on embedding the globalization of healthcare in standard health insurance packages. At the convention in Century City, meeting rooms buzzed with sessions on how to sell insurance companies and major employers on the idea.

If the reforms being decided in Washington don’t clearly reduce costs for healthcare and insurance — and right now they’re headed in the wrong direction — American workers may find themselves facing “incentives” for overseas surgery that border on coercion.

Medical tourism is known today as a path to lower-priced plastic surgery, dental implants or laser eye surgery, and a last resort for the middle-class uninsured who can scrape together $50,000 for a liver transplant in India, but not the $200,000 it would cost in the U.S. The business end of medical tourism, however, sees major growth potential in the already insured.

But there is a problem: No public data on quality and little recourse for injured patients. Despite the industry’s assertion that it offers U.S.-quality care, there is no backup to that claim. A new U.S.-based accreditation system for international hospitals adds some reputational sheen but doesn’t let patients compare results of, for instance, cardiac bypasses. Patients are often faced with signing airtight waivers that free providers from liability for negligence or error, starting with the paid “facilitators” who arrange travel, visas, lodging and hand-holding during the process.

For insurers and employers looking at a $45,000 hip replacement in the U.S., the lure of a $5,400 hip replacement in India — even with $10,000 or $12,000 in travel and lodging costs added on — is hard to resist. So what if there’s a lack of public, comparative data on outcomes, complications and long-term recovery?

Hospitals in the Third World pay a fraction of U.S. salaries. A doctor in the Philippines, for instance, makes far less than a U.S. nurse. In nations including India, Thailand and Mexico, government intervention steeply reduces drug and other costs. Hospital construction costs are low, and physical safety requirements such as earthquake-proofing are generally absent. Hospitals for the international trade don’t have to care for indigent patients. And, because the deeply ill aren’t candidates for a 15-hour pre-surgery plane trip, the overseas hospitals skim off healthier patients needing less complicated — and expensive — care. This could leave U.S. hospitals and medical professionals to treat the sickest patients — and raise U.S. costs even more.

Here are a few early indicators of insurer interest: The Blue Cross Blue Shield website touts “Blue Cross’ Companion Global Healthcare,” a wraparound travel planner and network of overseas providers, selling to individuals and to employers in South Carolina. In California, Blue Shield and HealthNet offer plans for employers of Mexican immigrants that cover treatment in Mexico. And United Health Group, the parent of PacifiCare, sent a speaker to the medical tourism conference to advise on how to get employers to include overseas surgery in health plan networks.

In 2008, West Virginia legislators considered a proposal promising state employees a waiver of all co-payments and deductibles, payment of all travel expenses for the patient and a companion, a week of “free” sick leave and a rebate of 20% of savings if they chose overseas surgery. The measure didn’t pass. But except for the rebate, it’s close to what an Anthem WellPoint pilot program offers and what a few smaller U.S. companies are trying out.

When overseas surgery goes well, the insurance company — or an employer with a self-funded health plan — ends up with a fatter profit and a satisfied patient.

If the surgery doesn’t go so well, or a long flight home generates a deadly post-surgical blood clot, the patient has little recourse.

Overseas surgery or cancer treatment is as drastic as cost-cutting gets, putting the whole burden of risk on the patient. Yet Congress is heading toward a bill that forbids cost efficiencies such as direct government drug purchasing or Medicare-style price-setting. Medicare-for-all never even got serious consideration.

That’s why medical tourism should be under a microscope now, before employers and insurance companies decide it’s part of their own cost — and profit — solution. Read the original complete article herehttp://www.latimes.com/features/health/medicine/la-oe-dugan3-2009nov03,0,4342765.story

PHILIPPINES: Medical tourism development in the Philippines

Tags: medical tourism philippines

An integrated medication tourism zone is planned in Nasugbu, Batangas, with completion due by November 2012. Local company Global Village Mobile Network Corp (GVMNC) has been approved by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) as a new ecozone medical tourism enterprise. GVMNC facilities will occupy a 24-hectare portion of the 52-hectare medical tourism park being developed by local group Camp David Investment and Holdings (CDIHI). PEZA has also approved CDIHI as a new medical tourism park developer subject to a presidential proclamation. CDIHI has allocated P318 million for the development of the park.

Facilities within the medical tourism park include a tertiary hospital that is designed to accommodate 100-bed in-patient suites, 8-bed intensive care units, 8-bed cardiac care units, 10-bed hemodialysis unit, 8-bed day care surgery unit, 3 fully functional operating rooms, a cardiac catheterization laboratory and a lithotripsy unit. A five-star hotel will accommodate visiting relatives and patients. The development also includes clustered home facilities for the elderly with long term medical care requirements. These are designed to provide programmed long-term care to 1152 residents, some locals but mainly Japanese retirees, with on-line telemedicine facilities. Other facilities in the park include healthcare, wellness and cosmetic surgery and spa; condominium administrative housing, country club complex, pavilion complex and satellite network hub facility.

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The Cebu Health and Wellness Council (CHWC) is upbeat about Cebu’s potential in medical tourism. The group is seeing an increasing number of medical travelers in the province. It seeks to use the country’s growing expatriate Filipino workers, balikbayans, as envoys to promote medical tourism where they work.

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CHWC is a private-public sector coalition developing and promoting the health and wellness industry in Cebu. It includes hospitals, doctors, dentists, spas, hotels, travel agents, tour operators and government departments.

The aim is to position Cebu as a premier health and wellness destination in Asia by attracting foreign patients through testimonies and first-hand experiences of balikbayans of local medical and wellness services. The Department of Tourism-Cebu wants to attract Filipinos around the world to come back home for health and wellness services and become ambassadors for the sector. So international Filipino communities with foreign friends would share by word-of-mouth their personal experiences of local health and wellness therapies. CHWC member-organizations are conducting talks with several Filipino communities abroad who could help bring in Filipino patients. Cebu also wants to attract Americans and Europeans seeking medical services and wellness vacation packages. The Philippines wants to catch up with rivals Thailand, India, Singapore and Malaysia. Read the original article here http://www.imtjonline.com/news/?entryid82=165283

Medical tourism in Cebu, Philippines growing

Tags: Cebu City Medical check up, Cebu Doctors Medical checkup,cebu medical tourism, check up, Chong Hua executive

For those residents in Cebu, you might be interested in an annual check up at the local hospital here or for those outside the country and wanting to take advantage of medical tourism, you might be interested in three hospitals here in Cebu, Philippines offering Executive check-ups both out patient or in patient.

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While in Cebu you can take advantage of the other tourism activities if you are from out of town. Just search in google for Cebu tourism.

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AMID the global financial crisis that has affected the travel market, the Cebu Health and Wellness Council (CHWC) remains upbeat about Cebu’s potential in medical tourism. The group is seeing an increasing number of medical travelers in the province—foreigners and balikbayans who are attracted to the “value-for-money” packages developed by the CHWC.

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Executive Check-up programs for busy executives who lead a stressful life. The plan combines a comprehensive history and physical examination with advanced screening test. Custom tailored diagnostic evaluations, recommended by experienced physicians who are focused on promoting wellness and prevention and thorough medical check-ups and physical examinations that help detect health problem before they become severe.

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Three hospitals here in Cebu, Philippines for your information that offer Executive Check-ups

Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital Executive Checkup, Cebu City, Philippines
phone international 63 32 255-5555 or info@cduh.com.ph

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Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital offers Executive Check-up programs for busy executives who lead a stressful life. The plan combines a comprehensive history and physical examination with advanced screening test. Custom tailored diagnostic evaluations, recommended by experienced physicians who are focused on promoting wellness and prevention and thorough medical check-ups and physical examinations that help detect health problem before they become severe. They have a brochure online but the costs are noted in the brochure below.

Chong Hua Hospital Cebu City, Philippines

There are four (4) Executive Check – up Plans to choose from, depending on the extent of medical assessment required by your attending physician. A DIABETIC PROFILE has recently been set-up for complete assessment of our diabetic patients. A special lounge is available for your convenience and comfort. For more details please contact Executive Check-up Office, Tel. No. 255-8000, local 5125 for more inquiries.
http://www.chonghua.com.ph/ecu.htm

Chong Hua Hospital Executive Check-Up
For inquiries and appointments, please call:
Tel. No.: +63(32) 255-8000 local 5125
The Chong Hua Hospital also provides special Executive Check-Up (ECU) for the executive staff of a company. The various other services that can be availed by the patients of this hospital are:
Emergency and Ambulance Service
Eye Center
Pharmacy Services
Litho Center
Renal Services
Out-Patient Department
Delivery Room Complex
Operating Room Complex
Hematology – Oncology Unit
The various units of the Cebu Chong Hua Hospital are:
Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
Critical Care Unit
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)
Neurophysiology
Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU)
Women’s Health Center
Heart Institute
Computed Tomography Scan (CT-Scan)
Cardiology Unit
Pulmonary Laboratory
Endoscopy Unit
Radiology
Sleep Laboratory
For further details, one can contact at:
Chong Hua Hospital, Cebu
Fuente Osmena, Cebu City, Philippines 6000
Tel. No.: +63(32) 254-1461

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-Perpetual Succour Hospital executive check up Cebu City, Philippines

pshcares@pshcebu.comPerpetual Succour Hospital
Gorordo Avenue, Lahug, Cebu City 6000 Philippines
PSH Care Mobile: (63927) 650-4065