South Korea's hospitals will be allowed directly to seek foreign patients beginning May 1 as part of the country's efforts to promote medical tourism. Lee Young Ho, a marketing director of the Global Healthcare Business Centre, said he expects the medical industry to grow fast due to aggressive overseas marketing. South Korean hospitals are currently barred from directly advertising for patients or accepting them through dedicated referral services. But the Centre, which is controlled by the health ministry, is forming a network of hospitals and travel agencies which will be officially allowed to seek patients abroad under a law which takes effect on May 1.
The Senate is set to approve President Barack Obama's nominee for health and human services secretary Tuesday, giving the agency a leader in the midst of the swine flu outbreak. Morning debate and an afternoon vote were scheduled to confirm Kathleen Sebelius, the two-term Democratic governor of Kansas. She was expected to get the 60 votes needed in the Democratic-led Senate.
California Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, wants to curb the practice of unregulated rate increases through legislation that would require the state's two health insurance regulators to approve health plan increases in premium, co-payment, deductible or other charges. Not surprisingly, the California Association of Health Plans opposes the bill. The trade group for the state's health insurers argues that such legislation would hinder plans from offering new products or changing existing policies, adding a "burdensome new regulatory scheme."
The Minnesota Senate and House approved multi-billion-dollar health and human service bills, as DFLers continued their march toward a showdown with Gov. Tim Pawlenty over a major area of the state budget. The two bills, which have some notable differences, include what DFL leaders said are painful but necessary reductions in light of the state's $4.6 billion budget deficit. But the reductions fall short of what the governor said is necessary to slow down rising costs. The House and Senate DFL majorities both tried to convince Minnesotans that Pawlenty is going too far in pushing people off state-subsidized healthcare and in cutting funds for hospital and nursing home facilities.
This blog posting from the Los Angeles Times outlines Wellpoint's pilot with Serigraph Inc., a specialty graphics company with operations in Wisconsin, Mexico and Asia, that gives U.S. employees the option to travel to India to have surgery on a non-emergency basis. Wellpoint's Paul McBride, vice president of healthcare management and services, spoke on the topic during a panel on healthcare economics at the Milken Institute's Global Conference today in Beverly Hills.
A conservative group will begin a $1 million television advertising campaign warning Congress not to enact a government-run healthcare plan similar to those in other countries. The ads feature British and Canadian doctors saying the healthcare plans in their countries reduce choices and asserting that patients have died while awaiting care.
The ads are funded by Conservatives for Patients' Rights Action Fund.