2 registered
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and 10 anonymous users online.
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#102801 - 07/04/08 10:21 PM
Medical costs
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emtfingers
New Member
Registered: 09/13/07
Posts: 8
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Stumbled across this web page...
With the cost of bread, gasoline and prescriptions and an office visit... this presents its own degree of temptation
http://www.globalhospital.net/aboutus/intpc.html
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#102802 - 07/04/08 10:46 PM
Re: Medical costs
[Re: emtfingers]
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tropsicleAfter
Member
Registered: 10/30/06
Posts: 2725
Loc: Vicksburg, MS
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Once one adds on the $1300-$1500 round trip (average, LA-Mumbai), then the prices really aren't that much of a savings at all, and this is what I have never gotten about this type of marketing.
_________________________
tropsicle
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#102816 - 07/05/08 10:10 AM
Re: Medical costs
[Re: tropsicleAfter]
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DaisyDuke
Junior Member
Registered: 06/11/08
Posts: 95
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This is real interesting. Insurance companies in the US are now allowing coverage for these global healthcare facilities. They just cannot afford the prices in the US nor the lack of quality of care anymore. Aetna insurance is one provider who is actually encouraging overseas claims. They are even paying for the transportation to and from. Ya can't beat the price and I hear the care is superb.
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#102819 - 07/05/08 11:06 AM
Re: Medical costs
[Re: DaisyDuke]
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Glory1863
Member
Registered: 03/27/08
Posts: 440
Loc: Beyond Antares
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OK, so they're putting in an AICD for $4000 to $4500 (not counting drugs or disposables). I could see doing it without the EP study, I suppose, but is this also not counting the cost of the device itself? Way back when those devices were "new toys" for the CV surgeons, were the size of a pack of cigarettes, weighted at least a pound and had epicardial leads, the unit itself cost in the neighborhood of $25,000. Now they're the size of pacemakers and can be implanted like one, but I find it hard to believe that the price of the device has gone down that substantially. An AICD (with EP study) here runs $45,000 to $55,000. Medicare reimbursement, if I read it right, is somewhere around $18,000. This just isn't adding up for me, and the airfare would be the least of my worries.
_________________________
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. Abraham Lincoln
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#102828 - 07/05/08 01:14 PM
Re: Medical costs
[Re: Glory1863]
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14tonks
Member
Registered: 10/25/01
Posts: 7170
Loc: Only 3rd world country in US
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They are even paying for the transportation to and from. Ya can't beat the price and I hear the care is superb.
Insurance companies are happy to save money on claims any way they can; they are looking out for themselves, not the patients. Yes, there are overseas facilities that are good and that provide very good care. The problem is that they are overseas--thousands of miles away from your family, their jobs, and your entire support network of friends and neighbors. It's all fine if you can afford to go overseas with your significant other for surgery and discharge within a week. However, if complications set in and that week turns into months in an ICU, how happy are you going to be with being in that wonderful facility overseas? If you eventually die there, that's another whole set of complications. Adverse outcomes is one of those things never mentioned in those glowing ads about getting good medical care at low prices.
As far as AICDs go, the price may well not include the actual device. OTOH, as with pharmaceuticals, prices overseas for medical devices are way below what they are in this country.
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#102832 - 07/05/08 02:58 PM
Re: Medical costs
[Re: emtfingers]
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emtfingers
New Member
Registered: 09/13/07
Posts: 8
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This wasn't meant to upset any one. Some of these procedures have recently been done by members of my family... the costs paid here in the US were 3 to 7 times these amounts... which certainly covers air fare. When many physicians are under "cost controls" of "X" number of patients in "X" minutes... these overseas prices take on a different meaning. That is not to say I am in agreement, that it is just the way "things use to be here." Hubbie was in the hospital and neurological consult was made.. MD said he only had 15 minutes... let's look at quality of care when the MD is watching his watch and not the patient. Mom had a bill of $18K to surgeon for bypass, $65K to hospital (48 hours) plus anesthesia plus cardiologist plus plus plus plus... saw the surgeon 20 minutes before surgery, 15 minutes after and 10 minutes in the office and released. Again, I am not saying this is the best thing since ice cream but US fees are through the roof. Other countries afford these costs.. and aspirins are not $7.50 a tablet.
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#102873 - 07/07/08 11:06 AM
Re: Medical costs
[Re: 14tonks]
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FarAwayDeb
Member
Registered: 03/15/02
Posts: 2956
Loc: just south of Rochester, NY
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Well, if you have your surgery in India, the transcription can be done right there as well! Maybe they'll have you bring it back with you and give it to your doctor here!
_________________________
Good grammar ain't easy.
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#103080 - 07/09/08 10:46 AM
Re: Medical costs
[Re: emtfingers]
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DaisyDuke
Junior Member
Registered: 06/11/08
Posts: 95
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The global community offers tremendous opportunity for people in the US and healthcare is no exception. It's too bad that people in the US are so cynical about other options that may actually be better and less costly. Of course, insurance companies are watching out for themselves, they have to as they are being bled to death by US health care system. There are alternatives to the US Healthcare System that are viable, cost effective and inherently superior. Many are going abroad and many are very happy with the results. Maybe we'll be able to purchase health care through these providers in years to come.
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#103087 - 07/09/08 11:24 AM
Re: Medical costs
[Re: DaisyDuke]
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tropsicleAfter
Member
Registered: 10/30/06
Posts: 2725
Loc: Vicksburg, MS
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Of course, insurance companies are watching out for themselves, they have to as they are being bled to death by US health care system.
Huh?
The insurance industry is and has been enjoying record profits for several decades.
Bled to death? Hardly.
_________________________
tropsicle
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#103173 - 07/10/08 01:38 PM
Re: Medical costs
[Re: DaisyDuke]
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DebbMT
New Member
Registered: 10/19/07
Posts: 18
Loc: Virginia
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Of course, insurance companies are watching out for themselves, they have to as they are being bled to death by US health care system.
It would make my heart glad if the above statement were true. I think insurance companies are nothing but a funnel. The money flows freely into the wide-mouthed top and drips slowly out the narrow bottom.
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