Due to higher costs of healthcare in the United States, millions of patients become medical tourists every year. They travel to different foreign countries in order to receive medical treatments through elective procedures and surgeries. The major driving force behind increasing medical tourism in the U.S. is that a huge number of Americans do not have medical insurance cover or are underinsured. Some people cannot go for Medicare or Medicaid as certain age and category factors do not allow this. In such conditions, patients are bound to look for healthcare alternatives, which they find in medical tourism to distant nations.
American employers who are observing a significant increase in employee medical premiums are facing the same issue. That is the reason why some employers have come up with an innovative model of reducing these costs for their companies. This is done by considering the option of domestic medical tourism. Under this model, employers have tied up with premier healthcare institutions and facilities within the country. The employers negotiate over prices with these medical facilities so that elective medical procedures can be availed for their employees at affordable rates. This strategy lets them make significant savings that otherwise goes into annual insurance premiums.
Insurance companies, who are negotiating prices with specialty facilities to reduce their costs, are following similar, highly lucrative and beneficial model. Thus, employees are sent to these high-quality healthcare facilities within the United States as and when they require undergoing important surgeries or elective procedures. Thus, domestic medical tourism is not only cutting costs for employers, but also delivering quality healthcare to suffering employees. In addition, cost-conscious employees get satisfactory treatments in big and reputed hospitals where they otherwise could not have gone for the same treatments.
Employers are trying hard to make contracts with large insurance companies and administrative authorities in order to get the best deals on medical procedures for their employees. It also supports suffering employees, as they do not have to take pains to fly overseas for their treatments. Most of the companies also take care of travel logistics for employees. As employee patients are traveling domestically, there are fewer complications arising post surgeries. Thus, they seem to be more satisfied with their treatments. However, employers opting for domestic medical tourism would need to consider that they only get into contracts with some high-quality facilities for availing the right kind of healthcare services for employees.
