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The travel time more than wiped out any profit. He actually lost money. I'm sure he could have done five to ten knees just in the time it took to fly there and back. Even at $900 a pop, that's a lot more money.
"Dr. Parisi, a graduate of the Mayo Clinic, is one of about 40 orthopedic surgeons in the United States who have signed up with NASH, to travel to Cancún on their days off to treat American patients."
He didn't lose money unless you assume he usually spends his days off in USA doing knee surgeries all day for 1/3 the rate. He also gets a night in Cancun, a resort area which might be a nice break from Wisconsin weather.
Yes, it's definitely "insular and xenophobic" to keep one's medical care in a country where you actually have recourse if something goes wrong.
Boy, you sure nailed that one.
Look up "medical tourism". It's done all the time. As with the USA, there are good and bad providers. I watched a couple of Netflix series that covered a few cases. "Botched-up bodies" showed some of the horror stories of people who went abroad for cheap dental implants and breast augmentation, but another showed a clinic in Thailand that serves mostly Australians that looked excellent- extensive pre-testing before they'd operate, enough time to recuperate in a spa-like environment, doctors who were realistic about what they could do (no, we can't stuff a D-cup implant into your A-cup breast because you don't have enough tissue and the incision will probably rupture).
In many countries, the national health service is VERY slow on hip replacements, knee replacements and other conditions that won't kill you but sure interfere with your life. One Australian woman with a tipped uterus said she was on a 5-year waiting list to have it repaired- she went to Thailand instead.
Totally agreed on the fact that you're up a creek if you have a bad outcome but I wouldn't be opposed to going to a place with a very good reputation and playing tourist while I was recovering.
Yes, it's definitely "insular and xenophobic" to keep one's medical care in a country where you actually have recourse if something goes wrong.
Boy, you sure nailed that one.
I was treated at an ER in Texas U.S.A., and something did go terribly wrong. The attending physician who spent a total of about 15 minutes with me, sent me a bill for $1240 — he had the audacity to claim his services were worth, and he demanded to be paid ~ $5K/hour! My health care plan paid him $184 (what they deemed fair), but that wasn’t enough and Dr. X balance-billed me. The health care plan paid him another $90 (total of $274 for 15 minutes work), but that still wasn’t enough and the a-hole took me to collections.
To their credit my health care plan eventually paid this creature the full amount he demanded, and they black-listed him. But he got away with what I consider extortion and robbery.
Something did go wrong, what was my “recourse” here in the Land of the Free?
I was treated at an ER in Texas U.S.A., and something did go terribly wrong. The attending physician who spent a total of about 15 minutes with me, sent me a bill for $1240 — he had the audacity to claim his services were worth, and he demanded to be paid ~ $5K/hour! My health care plan paid him $184 (what they deemed fair), but that wasn’t enough and Dr. X balance-billed me. The health care plan paid him another $90 (total of $274 for 15 minutes work), but that still wasn’t enough and the a-hole took me to collections.
To their credit my health care plan eventually paid this creature the full amount he demanded, and they black-listed him. But he got away with what I consider extortion and robbery.
Something did go wrong, what was my “recourse” here in the Land of the Free?
Something similar happened to me when I had surgery a few years ago. Despite my checking to insure that everyone who touched me was covered by my insurance, one physician's assistant slipped in and attempted to bill an excessive amount.
Like your case, my insurance finally paid him simply because of the efforts I made to insure that everyone accepted my insurance.
There's something else wrong with the scenario of an American insurance company taking an American employee's premium money and "offshoring" the procedure, even with paying an American doctor. There has to be some benefit to the facility, which will not go to the American hospitals that are going broke. If you want to sell insurance in the US to US workers, then you should have to agree to play by the cost rules here. Otherwise it's more money sent elsewhere and who's left to make up the difference? How will our system ever work with this kind of shenanigans going on?
I have no problem with the concept of getting good care elsewhere. It happens every day. Plenty of countries have perfectly good doctors and care. But this is a big corporation doing an end run around the entire system to make more profit. Why is this legal? Especially when I can't mail order medicine from other countries?
Every other industry outsources at will. Most retailers get you cheap goods overseas and sell it to you - and most consumers buy it without batting an eye. The American hospitals also outsource radiology and other back-office services overseas. So, why are the rational actions of this company trying to save costs in the context of a medical system with runaway costs causing you heartburn?
The fact is that we allow the pharma, medical devices industries to charge many times higher prices to our medical system - at least partly through patent protections and patent extensions, insist on non-value adding insurance industry add the non-value adding activities such as medical coding to the worklist at hospitals and doctors, permit protectionism and barriers to entry at AMA to keep the supply of doctors down, etc. A lot of ... are feeding at this trough. And, the resulting industry is not competitive in terms of costs (at that's expected given the trade barriers it has to protect itself) - but obviously has a geographical monopoly. The 'free-market' will reduce prices cool-aid is costing us very dearly - this market could not be more protected.
What you are seeing is how uncompetitive it is. The blame lies with the industry and its enablers, not on the rational actions of people trying to avoid the monopolistic pricing we are stuck with.
The blame lies with the industry and its enablers, not on the rational actions of people trying to avoid the monopolistic pricing we are stuck with.
I totally agree. Too bad Medicaid patients like me can't demand this kind of care on the taxpayers' behalf. I wouldn't mind being the canary in the coal mine or testing the waters.
As an uncompensated caregiver, I've been feeling literally trafficked by our system. This could take the edge off.
Sure! Brilliant! The cost of the device in the US - $8000, in Mexico - $3500. And, you are blaming it on the 2.3% tax on artificial joints. Couldn’t get more rational, could it?
You seem to have a reading comprehension issue. Look at my post again.
There's something else wrong with the scenario of an American insurance company taking an American employee's premium money and "offshoring" the procedure, even with paying an American doctor.
Nope. there is nothing wrong with it at all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYC refugee
But this is a big corporation...
You say that as if it were a bad thing. It isn't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYC refugee
... doing an end run around the entire system to make more profit.
You say that as if it were a bad thing. It isn't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYC refugee
Why is this legal?
Because it is not illegal.
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