India fast emerging as health, well-being destination : Business : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri)

India fast emerging as health, well-being destination

The Yomiuri Shimbun

India has earned a reputation as a health and wellness destination, and is now seeing a growth in medical tourism, according to Gopalakrishnan Venkataraman, East Asia regional director of Indiatourism in Tokyo.

"Because of its developing medical science infrastructure, medical tourism in India is on the increase," Venkataraman said in a recent interview. "Because it's cost-effective and affordable, many people from Britain, mainland Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia come to India for treatment. Medical tourism is a growing market in India, now worth about 12 billion dollars."

Ayurveda--"science of life"--which provides permanent cures for illness, is based on 5,000-year-old ancient medicine, using herbs and roots that provide natural care, according to Venkataraman.

Not only a medical destination, more and more Japanese visitors are looking to India as a cultural, spiritual, fashion and economic destination, Venkataraman said.

"The world has realized that India has many things to offer, not only from a tourism point of view, but economic, science and technology, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and information technology points of view," he said. "India is increasingly recognized as a destination with many facets." Venkataraman said about 150,000 Japanese people visited India last year, the most from East Asia.

India has become a favored destination for individual travelers. According to a survey conducted by Lonely Planet, an Australian travel guide publisher, in 2005, India ranked the second in the list of 10 popular destinations for individual travelers after Australia. The United States ranked third and Japan fourth.

To promote tourism, India launched a three-year campaign called Atithi Devo Bhava (ABD) last year. Atithi Devo Bhava means "The visitor is a god" in Sanskrit.

"We are looking at tourists as gods. If Japanese people come to India, we treat them as gods," Venkataraman said.

"We have 28 World Heritage Sites approved by UNESCO and, in addition, each prefecture and each province in India has a different culture," he said. "If you go to India, you can see a world of different lifestyles."

India also is a top IT destination in the world, Venkataraman stressed.

"We are increasingly known as an IT destination and Indiatourism launched a campaign called 'IT with Beauty' in the Far East," Venkataraman said. "The campaign combined India's IT prowess with picturesque places and beautiful people of India. India's Miss Universe and Miss World, who held the center stage for many years, have become India's brand ambassadors to enhance the country's image."

Venkataraman also said that his office packages IT tours in collaboration with IT companies in India that have started giving project-management and IT-related training to staff of companies abroad, as well as providing IT tourists with information about places of interest to visit during their stay.

"Corporate Japan is looking toward India as an incentive destination," Venkataraman said. "If employees did a good job or achieved a target, a company sends them on a holiday package to India at the company's cost. For example, Suzuki Motor Corp. is sending 2,600 employees, in several groups, to India on a five-day incentive holiday this month."

Venkataraman emphasized that India as a tourist and investment destination welcomes Japanese people.

"India and Japan will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Indian-Japanese cultural ties in 2007," he said. "Japan and India have maintained a good relationship."

Medical Insurance in US to pay for foreign surgeries

Charleston Daily MailBill would cover
surgeries outside U.S.

Kris Wise
Daily Mail Capitol reporter

Friday February 03, 2006

Members of the House of Delegates are backing a bill that would pay for state employees to have medical procedures in hospitals outside the United States.

Delegate Ray Canterbury, R-Greenbrier, has written a bill to promote what's now being called "medical tourism" among workers covered by the Public Employees Insurance Agency.

The practice of patients traveling to sometimes-distant foreign countries for cheaper surgeries and other kinds of health care is becoming more of a trend in places like Britain and China, but it's starting to catch on in the United States, Canterbury said.

His plan, co-sponsored by Delegate Ron Walters, R-Kanawha, and Delegate Jeff Eldridge, D-Lincoln, would cover all medical costs and travel expenses for the patient and a companion if an overseas procedure costs significantly less than the same treatment in the United States.

Canterbury said Thursday that a major surgery performed in India or Thailand costs 80 percent to 90 percent less than the same procedure in a U.S. hospital.

He expects his plan would save the state money and would encourage more competition between West Virginia medical facilities. He said state workers would get the most benefits and PEIA would see the biggest cost savings when a person needs a procedure that would cost $12,000 or more if performed here.

"There's going to be an economic threshold for this when it becomes feasible," Canterbury said. "But when it does, it's going to have a dampening effect on inflation here. The quality is there (abroad), the costs savings are there and it's something that's not new."

Canterbury said he first began researching the potential for cheaper care abroad after seeing a report on the subject last year on CBS' "60 minutes."

He has since established a Web site, www.competitionishealthy.com, to educate people on which hospitals in which countries are most recommended for less expensive, quality procedures.

"I have talked to a lot of people in my district who have PEIA and they're interested in the possibilities," Canterbury said. "But moreover, they're just glad someone is thinking about them and what they're paying right now."

PEIA premium rates are increasing about 22 percent for state workers this year.

Workers who opt for an overseas medical excursion would have their PEIA co-pays and deductibles waived, they would get free airfare for two along with lodging and expenses for up to a week after their medical procedure and PEIA would reimburse their employing state agency for the sick leave they use.

If the savings still were significant for the state, the employee also could get a rebate of 20 percent what the state saved through the overseas procedure.

Canterbury said PEIA receives more than 1,300 claims each year for medical procedures that cost more than $12,000. The total cost to the state for those procedures is $40 million each year, he said.

"If you look at it that way, the average cost is $30,000," Canterbury said. "Even if this only works for one or two percent of the claims, there's going to be significant savings somewhere."

Medical Tourism Ceners in USA

The Best Money Can Buy: Medical Tourism in the U.S.A.

The Best Money Can Buy: Medical Tourism in the U.S.A.

New America Media, News Feature/Analysis, Hilary Abramson, Feb 02, 2006

Editor's Note: Much has been written about U.S. citizens traveling abroad for affordable health care. But increasingly, U.S. hospitals are catering to -- and profiting from -- wealthy foreign patients. And when it comes to translation, these "medical tourism" centers cover all major languages, while mainstream U.S. medicine comes nowhere near fulfilling its mandate to provide interpretation to all.

SAN FRANCISCO--Turn a quiet corner of the U.S. health care system and bump into a medical niche unknown -- and unavailable -- to most patients.

While many Americans are traveling to India and Singapore for affordable lifesaving or cosmetic procedures, affluent foreign patients are paying cash upfront for stateside surgery and routine checkups in large medical centers with concierge services that cater to traveling families' banking, dining and shopping desires.

Call it medical tourism, American style.

Bouncing back from a post-9/11 setback in Middle Eastern patients by reaching out to Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, this market is competitive and lucrative. Neither the American Hospital Association nor the federal government knows the total number of foreign patients who received care at U.S. international medicine centers last year, or how much revenue U.S. hospitals and local economies reaped for treating them and hosting their families. According to "The Healthcare Business Market Research Handbook," by Richard K. Miller and Associates, annual revenue to U.S. hospitals for treating foreign patients who return home afterward totals more than $1 billion.

Mayo Clinic. Johns Hopkins. Cleveland Clinic. Texas Medical Center. Together with nine medical facilities in Philadelphia, these domestic drivers of medical tourism alone report welcoming more than 30,000 patients from more than 100 countries last year.

Philadelphia International Medicine (PIM) is the only U.S. medical consortium formed specifically to attract foreign patients to one metropolitan area, according to Leonard Karp, executive vice president and chief operations officer. Among its members are University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Temple University Hospital and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Founded six years ago, PIM is also building a hospital in Korea at an estimated cost of $860 million.

"Originally, our hope was to generate $200 million a year for the Philadelphia region, with about 6,000 patients generating $60 million in revenue," Karp says. "Since 9/11, we have restructured to be in a better position to withstand world events. This year, we attracted between 4,000 and 5,000 patients, mostly from the Caribbean, Middle East and Brazil, who generated more than $60 million in economic activity in Philadelphia."

Like his competitors, who attract at least double the number of overseas patients, Karp is secretive about total revenue and profit figures. Middle Eastern embassies regularly arrange payments for their patients, he says. Other patients pay cash or use insurance from companies with PIM contracts. Foreign patients can pay as much as 100 percent more than domestic patients.

Most health care observers consider marketing these centers a savvy way to make money in a broken health care system. But because doctor-patient communication in every major language is at the core of these programs, their interpretation services are the envy of health professionals serving as many as 20 million U.S. residents who barely speak English. These immigrants would be lucky to find a full-time, trained medical interpreter in a major metropolitan area emergency room.

Patients who speak limited English risk misdiagnosis, medical errors and poor quality of care, according to widespread research on language access in health care. These patients are more likely than others to report being in fair or poor health, defer needed medical care and experience drug complications. Guaranteed by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act as a protection against discrimination based on national origin, medical interpreting is often called health care's biggest "unfunded mandate." But failure to afford an interpreter will not prevent a malpractice lawsuit or civil rights investigation when mistakes from lack of communication result in injury or death.

In some cases, immigrants with a limited grasp of English who live and work near international medical centers can benefit from these facilities' commitment to hiring full-time interpreters. For instance, Johns Hopkins Medicine International reports having 40 full-time and 45 on-call interpreters; Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, 38 fulltime interpreters and 25 on-call employees; Cleveland Clinic, 35 staff interpreters; and Texas Medical Center, 10 full-time interpreters and 25 bilingual staffers.

"When our international patient coordinators have time to assist domestic patients who are limited-English-proficient, they do so," says Mika Dulay, project analyst for the Johns Hopkins International Call Center in Baltimore, Md. "Domestic patients who speak unusual languages might have to wait 60 or 90 minutes to get an in-person interpreter, and we also use telephonic interpreting."

In the Philadelphia international consortium, however, "there is a difference between use of medical interpreting for domestic patients who barely speak English and foreign patients," Karp says. "It's daunting for U.S. patients who speak English. You can imagine how it is for a person from a foreign country who doesn't speak English... We wouldn't want to use a telephonic interpreting service for the foreign patient unfamiliar with our culture and not speaking English. It's pretty impersonal. But telephonic works well in emergencies in hospitals for domestic patients who may not speak English."

It's the nature of the world that "crazy amounts of money buy good health care like trained medical interpreters," says Heng Foong, program director of PALS for Health, a community-based organization offering free, professional health care interpreting in Los Angeles and Orange County. "Do I think it's fair to someone who's living in this country and can't afford it? No. But this is a hard nut to crack. Very few people are willing to talk about it."

People coming to India for liver transplant

People coming to India for liver transplant

New Delhi, Feb 02: Forty-Four-year-old Nigerian Mariam Shehu was asked to wait for her death in her country, before she got a new lease of life here through a liver transplant surgery.

She is just one of 34 patients who have got highly specialised liver transplant surgery done in a hospital here in the past one year - 14 of them being from other countries such as Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nigeria and West Indies.

Mariam was diagnosed with end stage liver failure caused due to Hepatitis C in her country in February 2005.

'The doctors told me nothing can be done here...Go back to your home. That meant waiting for death,' Mariam told reporters here. However, her brother, who is in the US surfed the net for her and discovered India could be her saviour.

She got a live donor and liver transplant done here at the Gangaram Hospital on August 4, 2005. Her son, 26-year-old Toyin, donated liver.

Both Mariam and her son are now doing well, Dr S Nundy, Chairman of Surgical Gastroenterology at the hospital, said.

'Out of the 34 patients who underwent liver transplant done in the past one year, 20 are from India, Eight from Pakistan, three from Myanmar and one each from Bangladesh, Nigeria and Aruba (West Indies).

Liver transplant is needed for patients who are suffering from end stage liver failure. 'Success rate in this hospital is 89 per cent which matches the best internationally,' he said.
"

India as Tourist Health Hub

India, tourists' health hub

India's potentials, experience, infrastructure in healthcare and high-tech medical performance have started attracting increasing number of foreigners on lookout for an affordable healthcare package, including super-specialty medical and surgical services. India's healthcare performance is expected to touch 6.2% to 8.5% of GDP by 2012. The medical tourism is expected to grow 15 to 20% per annum..

"Karnataka is the ideal health tourism destination with the best health facilities and tourist attractions," says Mahendra Jain, Tourism Commissioner of Karnataka.

Around 1.5 lakh medical tourists visited India last year. Their number is expected to double this year. According to McKinsey study, the medical tourism industry could grow by 30% through implementation of an effective action plan.

According to Radhakrishna Rao, our internationally recognised professionals, holistic medical services and low cost treatment can easily help India earn US $15 billion a year through medical tourism. Significantly, medical tourism to India marked a big boost after Dr Devi Prasad Shetty and his team at Bangalore based Naryana Hrudayalya, a super-specialty cardiac care centre closed a hole in the heart of a Pakistani girl in 2003. Since then, number of patients coming to India for the treatment and surgery of heart from neighbouring countries, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal as well as from West Asia and Africa has been rising.

Irresistible Price-tag

Indian medicos and their reputation are spread the world over. This is helping patients of all nationalities to come to India. Here they find the price tag irresistible. The cost in the West is 5 to 6 times that of the Indian cost. In fact medical tourism involving both medicare and leisure in one package started from well-equipped Ayurvedic treatment centres in Kerala, offering both rejuvenative and curative therapies. These have been attracting Westerners suffering from a variety of degenerative diseases. Even some high-tech hospitals in West Europe are referring their patients to these Aurvedic centres. One such centre at Somatheeram on the outskirts of Thiruvanthapuram gets referrals from German hospitals. Soukya in Bangalore, a holistic healthcare centre with expertise in Ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy attracts number of patients from all over the world.

Kuki Gaelmann, a Kenya based environmentalist, who came to Soukya for rejuvenation therapy remarked, "Where else will I find such a place?" Many foreign tourists, after they are cured of their ailments with allopathic treatment go for Ayurvedic rejuvenation therapy. Efforts are on to promote an integrated healthcare package to lure increasing number of medical tourists to India.

In this regard, some leading names in the healthcare field of Bangalore, including the Naturopathy hospital of Jindal group are participating in this endeavour. The biggest attraction that India holds for those seeking timely and quality healthcare at affordable cost, is that unlike its Western counterparts, saddled with prohibitive costs and delays, India has the right mix of skills and value for money.

As an example, the angioplasty package offered by Apollo Hospital for $4000 includes airport pick-up and drop, in-house travel, related service, hotel stay for an attendant, one-day local sightseeing in an air-conditioned car, interpreter service whenever required and local transport, in addition to 3 days stay of the patient in the hospital.

Adding to India's allure as a low cost medical destination, is a group of super speciality hospitals like the Apollo group that has presence in every major Indian city, Escorts Heart Institute in Delhi and Jaslok and Hinduja hospitals in Mumbai. These hospitals are well equipped and offer the same level of care as anywhere else in the world. The Apollo group of hospitals so far have treated more than 10,000 international patients.

Apollo group is a network of 35 hospitals with 6500 beds. Kolkata's Apollo Gleneagle hospital is in contact with Hyatt Regency to offer a comprehensive medical-cum-tourism package to foreign patients. Leading travel company, Thomas Cook has a well-known surgeon Padam Sanghvi as its medical tourism project advisor. It is wrapping up a deal with leading chain of hospitals in India. Cox and Kings have tied up with Vedic India and Omkar Trust, two leading medical bodies that promote medical tourism in India. Jaslok hospital has an informal tie-up with Air India and Taj Group of hotels. Manipal hospital in Bangalore has dedicated an entire floor for treatment of foreigners.

Gope Lalla

Mark can now walk with ease - Newindpress.com

Mark can now walk with ease - Newindpress.com
Tuesday January 31 2006 13:11

COIMBATORE: It was worth a journey for Mark J. Biggers from his native town Arizona, United States of America (USA) to the fast-emerging medical hub, Coimbatore.

For he could now walk with ease, after he underwent a hip resurfacing surgery at the city-based Ganga Hospital.

“Mark was able to walk the next day after the surgery. It would not have been possible if we had performed hip-replacement on him,” said Dr S Rajasekaran, Director and Head, Department of Orthopaedics and Spine Surgery, Ganga Hospital, during a press conference here today.

Fifty-year-old Mark had developed a complication called ‘Avascular necrosis on the femur head,’ where the blood supply to the ball in the hip joint stopped.

He had approached several hospitals in his country, where he was told to undergo a total hip replacement surgery, a widely done procedure. But it was too costly for him.

Going by the advice from his family doctor, he reached Ganga Hospital in Coimbatore for hip resurfacing.

In US it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only a month ago.

“We have already got the European approval for this surgery, and we have been doing it successfully for the past four years,” said Dr S Rajasekaran.

For the avascular necrosis, the ball on the femur head was resurfaced rather than being removed and replaced. “We polished the ball and gave a smooth metal covering. Now, the patient can be normal like others as the ball accurately matches the cup,” he said.

The cost of the operation was only US $ 6,000 here, whereas it would be US $ 35,000 in West.

“The technical expertise is equal to the West here. That is the reason why many patients from abroad flock to India,” the doctor noted.

He also suggested increasing the infrastructure facilities, which would enable more foreign nationals to come to India for treatment.

An overwhelmed Mark said, “I am amazed by the kind of treatment I got here. The main reason why I have come here is the cost factor. I cannot afford the fees the hospitals in the West charge.”

He added “The doctors and nurses are much more friendly. They took personal interest in me. I trusted my family doctor when he suggested to go to Coimbatore. He was absolutely right.”

Gearing up for more medical tourists

The Hindu : Front Page : Gearing up for more medical tourists

K. V. Prasad

COIMBATORE: Mark J. Biggers (50) is the second U.S. citizen to undergo a hip resurfacing surgery here within a month. He is convalescing at Ganga Hospital and is set to leave for home in Arizona. Gregg Dean (59) left for home in Wyoming last week after a resurfacing surgery in another hospital.

A home and land developer, Mr. Biggers is among the growing club of foreigners, especially in the U.S. who surf the Internet for orthopaedic surgeons and land in Coimbatore. Talking to presspersons at the hospital, Mr. Biggers forecast a rise in the inflow of U.S. patients to India.

Affordability

"Health insurance is becoming unaffordable in the U.S. So there will be more of us coming to India," said Mr. Biggers. He got to know of Ganga Hospital on the Internet and verified with an Indian doctor in Arizona. Hospitals in the U.S. asked him to undergo a joint replacement two years. He came to know that resurfacing was a better option, as it did not curb mobility. Mr. Bigger's condition was caused by inadequate supply of blood to the joint called avascular necrosis. "Resurfacing is still not popular in the U.S.," pointed out S. Rajasekaran, President of the World Orthopaedic Concern and Head of the Department of Orthopaedics and Spinal Surgery of the hospital.

"The surgery costs nearly $ 35,000 in the U.S. It costs only up to $ 6,000 here".

Dr. Rajasekaran was confident that high cost of insurance and long waiting period for surgeries in the U.S. and the U.K. would lead to a huge inflow of foreigners. "Internationally, Coimbatore is rated as a city with speciality hospitals - for orthopaedics, gastroenterology and eye care. We are yet to market ourselves. Once that begins, the inflow will be tremendous," he said.

But, logistics would have to improve vastly. Coimbatore must have an international airport with enough connectivity. Now, people have to come through Chennai and Bangalore.

Cleanliness

"Besides, the city must be clean," he said. "When a foreigner sees garbage soon after he lands, he is bound to fear that the operation theatres will look no different," Dr. Rajasekaran warned.

Bloomberg Article on India's emerging surgery tourism

Fascinating article (which is no longer available through the web as far as I can tell) in the July 2005 Bloomberg Markets magazine on India's next frontier in outsourcing: surgery.

Health care for foreign patients will deliver 100 billion rupees ($2.3 billion) a year to India's hospitals by 2012, according to a report by New York-based consulting firm McKinsey Co. and the New Delhi-based Confederation of Indian Industry, the nation's biggest business group. The market in 2003 was $333-million ...

Apollo Price Comparison between India and United States