A new e-service has been launched by the Singapore-based FlyFreeForHealth. The new service assists patients with medical travel arrangements to Singapore, while also pairing them with the appropriate hospitals to meet their healthcare needs. The FlyFreeForHealth platform is a medical concierge network that additionally provides medical advice to patients. FlyFreeForHealth will be joined in offering the e-service by the Tourism Authority of Thailand and CTC Holidays, a travel agency in Singapore.
An inquiry into a scandal involving nearly 4,700 haemophiliacs infected by NHS blood that was contaminated with HIV and hepatitis C has determined that the British government should provide "significant compensation and healthcare support" for those patients. The report goes on to say that these incidents could be the worst treatment disaster in NHS history.
According to Global Industry Analysts, Inc., the global hospital information system market, which touts the United States as the largest representative of that with the Asia-Pacific region following closely behind, will grow to more than $35 billion over the next 5 years. The U.S. system's customized technology, such as laboratory and radiology information systems, is growing as well, paving the way for other systems, including electronic medical records.
While it's important to be a conscientious healthcare consumer, many patients are still not categorizing themselves that way, due, in part, to a lack of related information. And providers are facing obstacles in offering real healthcare consumerism. These problems will persist, too, if organizations move toward a single-payer of government-run healthcare system.
Research by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions found that 750,000 Americans traveled abroad in 2007 for some form of medical care. That number could rise to more than 6 million in the coming years, analysts say, as the trend continues to grow. Patients are looking to foreign medical facilities for care that includes dental work, surgery, and joint replacements, and all at lower costs. Critics worry, however, that language barriers and the inability for patients to return for follow-up care could stand in the way.
For the cover story in last month's HealthLeaders magazine, I noted that U.S. employers are aggressively trimming healthcare benefits and some are looking to get out of employer-sponsored coverage entirely.
As these employers get creative in offering lower cost benefits, global hospitals and medical travel facilitators can, to a degree, step in and fill some of the void for employees turned healthcare consumers. At the same time, however, we're seeing that necessary electives are down—mirroring other consumer purchases—because of the uncertain economy.
"I would speculate that some of this is due to employees either not having or not wanting to spend the $2,500-$5,000 out-of-pocket amount required for certain non-emergent procedures," says David Boucher, president of Companion Global Healthcare. "Some of the reduction may be due to employees not wanting to be out of work on rehab when downturns affect their employers."
I had an e-mail conversation today with Boucher, who is one of the best traveled healthcare executives you'll meet (he wrote to me from the IMTA conference in Singapore). Your travel and discretionary spending budget might have been slashed as a result of this deep global recession, but Boucher continues his globetrotting ways as Companion keeps adding to its network of JCI-accredited hospitals.
Last week Companion added CIMA hospitals in Mexico, giving U.S. clients and employer groups a medical travel option that's much closer to home.
I've heard people scoff at the notion of healthcare consumers enduring a 30-hour flight to Asia for knee-replacement surgery, but an hour-long trip to Monterrey seems a lot less laughable. In addition to the attraction of proximity, Boucher adds that with an influx of U.S. residents of Latin descent, this lets them get cheaper care in their home country.
Still, the skeptics might point out—as I did with Boucher—that there's been a spike in gang activity and kidnappings in Mexico lately. He says Companion is watching U.S. State Department travel alerts closely and is recommending that consumers fly directly to CIMA hospitals in Monterrey and Hermosillo, rather than driving across the border. Most of the violence is happening in border towns. "I've been to both communities and these hospitals recently and felt perfectly safe," says Boucher.
Last year, when Companion added ParkwayHealth Hospitals in Singapore to its network, Boucher told me he thought his entire network would grow to about a dozen high-quality global hospitals, but now says he thinks the network will top off at 20 to 25 hospitals. In the case of these CIMA hospitals, he says employer groups and individual consumers have been requesting that Companion offer Mexico as an option.
Avantis Medical Systems, a developer of chip-on-catheter digital imaging devices, reported that its Third Eye Retroscope for the detection of cancerous and pre-cancerous colon polyps has received FDA clearance. The Third Eye Retroscope is indicated for use with colonoscopy to provide the physician with an additional view of the colon for diagnostic and detection purposes.
The 2009 Healthcare Advantage Conference will be held May 5–7 in San Diego. General Session speakers at this year's conference include healthcare economists Jonathan Gruber, PhD, and Uwe Reinhardt, PhD; New York Times bestselling author Jason Jennings; and Kaveh Safavi, MD, JD, vice president and global lead, healthcare practice, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group.
Biomedical researchers are chafing under the constraints of the HIPAA Privacy Rule six years after it took effect. In an era in which an increasing number of medical records exist in digital form, ready to be analyzed for insight into health issues and the practice of medicine, it can be difficult for researchers to get their hands on that data.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provides $20 billion in health information technology funding, divided between $2 billion in discretionary funds and $18 billion in investments and incentives through Medicare and Medicaid, to ensure widespread adoption and use of interoperable healthcare IT systems. However, physicians who haven't adopted certified EHR systems by 2014 will have their Medicare reimbursements reduced by up to 3% beginning in 2015.
