Apollo Taj tie up

Apollo group are working hard to become the lead players in India's medical tourism scene and certainly they are the only group with some branding a strong external positioning.

Tying up with Taj Hotels seems like a good way of extending their reach and buttressing their position as a quality purveryor. Nevertheless , I dont see Taj pushing this much and more importantly having the skills to manage patients appropriately. Most likely this will be hot air and good publicity

Taj and Apollo Tie Up deal - expected

Companies & Industry: "Taj, Apollo to tie up for medical tourism
Prabodh Chandrasekhar / Mumbai February 10, 2006
The Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces (the Taj Hotels) is planning to ally with Apollo Hospitals for the promotion of medical tourism. The two companies are likely to sign an agreement next week.

Taj Hotels is expected to promote Apollo Hospitals among the tourists staying at its hotels in the country and abroad.

The cost benefits of conducting operations in an Apollo hospital in India will be conveyed to the tourists. In exchange, Apollo Hospitals would recommend Taj Hotels to its patients for lodging.

“It is for the first time in the country that a major hotels chain is tying up with a big hospitals group. The tie-up will be announced in about a week,” said a senior official at the Taj.

The alliance will also involve participation of tour operators in recommending Apollo Hospitals for medical tourism.

According to a Confederation of Indian Industry and McKinsey study, the medical tourism market in the country is estimated to grow to $1 billion by 2012 from the present $300 million. About 3 per cent of all foreign tourists visit the country for treatment.

India is fast emerging as an ideal destination for the western tourists who look at low-cost, minor operations such as knee replacement surgery and angioplasty.

Tourists from the Middle-East, Europe and south-east Asia come over to India for treatment in allopathic systems as well as ayurveda."

Insured in U.S., treated in India

Insured in U.S., treated in India: "CHENNAI : In a twist to the win-win outsourcing game, a U.S. insurance firm has extended cover for its Chicago client undergoing treatment in a Chennai hospital.

The ball was set rolling when Chicago-based Indian parents of three-year-old Rakesh Ram Mahesh expressed a preference to treat their son at Frontier Lifeline hospital in Chennai. The boy had been diagnosed with a hole in the heart (Ventricular Septal Defect) and aortic valve incompetence, which required early correction.

The insurance company— Blue Cross Blue Shield — eventually agreed to foot the bill, but not without some thorough homework on the track record of the institution. The firm went the distance by even despatching a team to Chennai to inspect the facilities at the Frontier Lifeline.

The inspection team gathered details such as the number of paediatric surgeries done the previous year and the mortality rate before the sanction came through.

'All we were asked to bear was the cost of the flight tickets,' said the boy's mother, M. Shakeela, whose husband Murugan Mahesh hails from Chennai. They had heard about the hospital from various sources.

'More than promotionals, the expectations sparked by word-of-mouth is all the more hard to match,' K. M. Cherian, head of Frontier Lifeline points out.

The cost of the surgery here cost only 10 per cent of the $50,000 it would have amounted to in any U.S. hospital. After the successful surgery last week, Rakesh is due to be discharged on February 11."

Medical Tourism Grows 10 fold in one year in India

Medical tourism has grown ten fold in one year from 10,000 to 100,000 visitors according to sify.com and others

"Medical tourism has got a shot in the arm with number of overseas
patients touching 100,000 mark in 2005 as against 10,000 patients in
2000 thanks to the bouquet of quality healthcare services fraught with
cost advantage."

see SIFY
and also Economic Times