Insurance Companies Have a Great Opportunity in Medical Travel

Insurance Companies Have a Great Opportunity in Medical Travel

With healthcare costs in the United States continuing to rise at higher rates than inflation, American health insurers are facing very tough times as there’s enormous pressure on their financials. Some allow these cost increases to impact their earnings as a means to gain share, others pass this on to customers as higher premiums, and yet others prefer to keep prices but creatively nudge deductibles, co-payments, and contract terms as to be able to survive in a fiercely competitive and controversial market. However, they must slowly acknowledge that an escape valve is found abroad.

As technology and information flows are shrinking our world, travel for healthcare is becoming universal. Americans looking for excellent but affordable medical or dental procedures find that neighboring countries have shown to have private healthcare facilities which offer very high quality care at great value. Even if US insurance companies realize this is an irreversible trend and understand that letting some of their clients choose to go overseas for surgery may offer a great opportunities to alleviate some of the strain, they are being too slow to adopt it as part of their strategy. Pushing insured clients to seek less expensive options abroad is not only looked down upon but sometimes illegal. What they don’t realize is that they are benefiting from this already and what they need is to align incentives a little better.

The story of one of our recent patients illustrates this point. Mr. Chris Moss, a Denver citizen who asked to remain anonymous, was very recently diagnosed with prostate cancer and advised by his doctor to seek immediate treatment. Having had no health problems in the past, this was his first call to Aetna Global Benefits, his employer-provided insurer. To his surprise, while the robotic prostatectomy surgery he desperately needed would only be covered 80% if performed in the U.S, leaving him with tough-to-cover medical bills of over ,000, he could choose to have his surgery abroad and his insurer would pay 100% of it. Chris immediately began to examine overseas options, skipping consciously on everything that wouldn’t meet or exceed the quality of care he could receive in Denver and quickly found an option which: 1) offered top-notch care, technology, and surgeons’ experience, 2) is very close to home, 3) has English-speaking staff, and 4) offers the possibility of remotely consulting with the doctors beforehand.

Without knowing it, Chris quickly became a Medical Traveler, one of the hundreds of thousands of Americans that seek affordable healthcare abroad. As patients typically do not know where to start their search or what they’ll find, medical travel facilitators provide assistance in understanding which are the best options, getting price quotes, contacting doctors, booking medical trips, and making the healthcare visit run smoothly. It was through our Monterrey-focused firm called Travel

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