Comparison of some Medical Tourism Organisations

Well, I am a patient and I am willing to travel abroad for a surgical operation. How do i find a hospital? I need some advise and information. Well google has all the answers... Theese are some of my findings and my description and comments on the purpose and role of each of the below organisations. All the information was obtained from their websites.  

 

Started in 2002-It is AA rated by Better Business Bureau since then.

Services: They arrange everything needed to travel in a country for medical reasons. This includes transport, hotel stay, hospital care and insurance. They also offer advise to help you choose the appropriate country and hospital to receive quality care in reasonable cost.

Insurance Offered:

• CATA (Complication risk, Accidental death and Dismemberment, Travel Risk, Aftercare)
• Diaspora (It is the insurance product that Planet Hospital launched. Not much relevance with Medical Tourism. It focuses on treatment in the US where health insurance is mandatory to receive complete medical care)

Partners Specifications: Planet Hospital does not certify its partners. As an assessment tool they use:

• Online reviews for Surgeons and Healthcare Professionals
• They actively review all partners in each country. Partners include hospitals, hotels, airlines etc.

Comments: Planet Hospital seems to mainly focus on reputational partners to gain trust, not all of them are accredited. However, in non-developed or non-reputational countries hospitals are JCI accredited. So there are not clearly stated specifications for hospitals to join the partners network. The network and procedures range seems to cover most cases, but it could be stated that there is a gap in quality assurance.

One of the partners is the Fertility Crete Centre (Greece)

General info: Based in Columbia-South Carolina

Member of: ISQua and SIIA*

*SIIA stands for Self Insurance Institute of America

Services: They arrange everything needed to travel in a country for medical reasons. This includes transport, hotel stay, hospital care and insurance. They also offer advise to help you choose the appropriate country and hospital to receive quality care in reasonable cost.

Insurance offered:

• Medical Travel Insurance from independent Insurance company named “Global Protective Solutions”. Same cover as CATA
• Insurance for medical care within the US

Partners Specifications: All Hospital facilities of the network are JCI Accredited.

“The American Medical Association (AMA) advises that companies recommending overseas health care only work with facilities that have been accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI).”

Comments: The business offers a medium range of medical procedures, but with high quality specifications. Not much is mentioned about medical professionals, but quality is assured since all partner facilities are JCI accredited.

The website also offers an online tool to compare costs of procedures between hospitals worldwide.

Comparison of the procedures covered from Planet Hospital and Companion Global Healthcare

This table is used to indicate that there are different strategies among medical tourism organizations. Planet hospital covers more medical procedures, but the specifications for partnership with providers are lower than Companion Global’s. 

Procedures Comparison Table	Planet Hospital	Companion Global Healthcare
Obesity
Obesity	●
Post Bariatric	●
Ortho / Neuro
Hip Surgery	●	●
Knee Surgery	●	●
Shoulder	●	●
Spine	●	●
Dental
Cosmetic Dentistry	●	●
Basic Dentistry	●	●
Elective
Cancer	●
Eye and Vision	●
Gynecological	●	●
Kidney / Liver / Pancreas	●
Liberation Treatment for MS	●
Radiation / Proton Beam	●
Heart
Cardio Testing	●
Heart Procedures	●	●
Lung Procedures	●
Cancer
Cancer	●
Radiation / Proton Beam	●
Surgical Oncology	●
Cosmetic
Breasts	●
Butt / Thigh Lift	●
Face	●
Genitalia	●
Liposuction	●
Other Cosmetic	●
Post Bariatric	●
Sex Change	●
Total Makeover	●
Tummy Tuck	●
Medicine of Tomorrow
Knee Cartilage Replacement	●	●
Liberation Treatment for MS	●
Radiation / Proton Beam	●
Stem Cell Therapies	●
Fertility
IVF & Surrogacy	●
Vasectomy / Tube Ligation Reversal	●
Not Listed-Other
0-10 Special Procedures		●
10-20 Special Procedures

Bupa started in the UK in 1947 with 38.000 customers.

Services: The business offers insurance products in multiple countries, Medical travel advice services, Healthcare services, and also does medical research.

The protection and risk business part of the organization (Bupa Health Assurance Ltd) is about to be sold to Resolution Ltd for £165,15million.

Comments: Bupa International has developed a quality assurance programme with the assistance of Joint Commission International (JCI).

The organisation offers only advice and insurance. There is a map with approved providers (including professionals, medical centres, hospitals) over the world, with contact info. Hygeia, Athens Medical Centre and Interbalkan European Medical Centre are partners.

 

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) is a national federation of 39 independent, community-based and locally operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies. The Organisation started 80 years ago and the headquarters are in Chicago.

Insurance offered: AskBlue Health Insurance

                                AskBlue Medicare

Services: Most services have to do with insurance. However there are some interesting advice tools used:

• Blue Doctor or Hospitals finder. An application with body graphs and checklists that helps to find the appropriate provider (in National level)

·        Blue Distinction® is a designation awarded by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies to medical facilities that have demonstrated expertise in delivering quality healthcare. The designation is based on rigorous, evidence-based, objective selection criteria established in collaboration with expert physicians' and medical organizations' recommendations. Its goal is to help consumers find quality specialty care on a consistent basis, while enabling and encouraging healthcare professionals to improve the overall quality and delivery of care nationwide.

Blue Distinction Example Criteria

Selection Criteria Category	Examples Include	Why This Matters to You
Patient Results (or Patient Outcomes)	Complication rates Readmission rates Mortality rate	Published averages for these measures often exist. Facilities are evaluated on how they compare to these averages to assess how well they do, overall, relative to their peers.
Treatment Expertise	Physician credentials Dedicated team focused on providing the particular area of specialty care Length of time a facility has performed a procedure	Processes like advanced training programs for physicians in certain specialty areas and having patient care teams dedicated to one type of specialty care may lead to better overall care and outcomes for patients.
Procedure Volume	Number of times a particular procedure has been completed	Experience counts. Like the old adage, “Practice makes perfect,” research has shown that the more a facility performs a particular procedure, the better the overall outcomes for patients. It is worth noting, however, that this does not guarantee positive outcomes for individual patients.
Structure	Type of services provided (ER, diagnostic testing abilities) Supporting departments (radiology, nutrition, social services, rehabilitation, etc.) Use of clinical registry data systems	Expert input and guidance suggest that for various specialty care services, a distinguished level of care and management of patients requires the availability of key clinical services, such as diagnostic, medical and collaborative services.
Process	Use of evidence-based care (e.g., use of beta blockers or aspirin for cardiac patients, which typically results in better outcomes) Systematic follow-up of patient results after procedures Quality improvement processes	Adherence to evidence-based (or clinically based) care processes, as well as a demonstrated focus on quality improvement, often relate to improved overall outcomes.

Comments: This organisation could be used as an example for advice that may be given to European citizens that wish to look for health related services within Europe.