US Insurer Announces Cover for Health Vacations in India

Americans Can Have Indian Heath Vacations Covered

US insurer Wellpoint has announced a program to cover health vacations in India for group members who wish to travel for non-emergency medical treatment.  The program will initially benefit about 700 members, as well as their dependants, and is expected to commence in early 2009.  In its testing stages, the plan will be limited to the employees of a Wisconsin-based printing company, Serigraph.  The scheme will cover non-emergency medical procedures, like joint and hip replacements.  Currently the plan only pays for health vacation travel to Bangalore and New Delhi, and will include facilities with Joint Commission International accreditation.

Bangalore and New Delhi are just two cities on India's medical tourism landscape that continue to attract people on health vacations from across the world.  It's not just emergency life-saving procedures that lure patients – non-emergency and elective surgeries also play their part in contributing to the country's medical tourism revenues.  Cost savings are as extensive for cardiac surgeries as they are for non-emergency treatments like a herniated disc procedures.   The cost of herniated disc surgery in India can often be less than 33% of what you might have to pay at a US hospital.  Wellpoint's plan is no doubt inspired by the alarming number of Americans who prefer to hot foot it out of the country for such procedures.  Even those with insurance plans routinely make the trek simply because paying out of pocket is cheaper than the expensive co-payments attached to certain insurance policies. 

Is Medical Tourism Safe?

For those group members who have concerns about how safe medical treatment outside the US is, Wellpoint has announced plans to co-ordinate all travel and treatment arrangements with hospitals in India that have been accredited by the Joint Commission International or JCI.  This is a non-profit organization that certifies hospitals, depending on their fulfillment of certain patient safety criteria.  This should put those patients, who have been pondering the question "is medical tourism safe" at ease.

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