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September 3, 2008 by Atul.
Current issue of the esteemed “Foreign Policy” magazine has a short article about PreviMed.
This is a non-trivial recognition by an important publication, which, for instance, has contributions from Senator Obama and Senator McCain long before the election winds started. The magazine also derives its strength from its publisher - the Carnegie Endowment.
You can read it (the item about us) here but requires paid registration. You can also pick up a copy at a nearby magazine-stand.
It is a short piece, written by Joshua Keating and some of the comments appear below:
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September 2, 2008 by Atul.
This is not an endorsement of the Medical Tourism Association and, as of now, PreviMed is not a member.
Still, the upcoming annual congress -being held this month 9th thru 12th in San Francisco - looks very interesting.
PreviMed executives will engage at this event with oter stakeholders to explore areas of mutual benefit.
More info about the event here and if you would like to meet, please contact us.
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August 17, 2008 by Atul.
The esteemed magazine The Economist in its August 14th issue has finally published a piece on medical tourism under a more accurate heading of “Globalisation and health care”.
Titled “Operating Profit”, the sub-title is tantalizing: “Why put up with expensive, run-of-the-mill health care at home when you can be treated just as well abroad?”
We, here at PreviMed, felt that it is a good start although it leaves out some rather important points - such as the topic of accreditation, EU’s recent position and AMA’s comments endorsing the trend.
You can read the article here and our comments to the article are reproduced below:
Cost savings (associated with medical tourism) need to be considered in the context of other variables.For example:A US-based patient may choose a hospital in Costa Rica over a Chinese hospital for many reasons (higher comfort with the language/culture, shorter flights and treatment/staff/facility-related specifics) - even if the Chinese hospital represents much higher cost savings.
However, currently, with the retail-type direct-patient focus, no good systems exist for presenting and comparing the multiple options for the patients.
Accreditation is also an important consideration but can be confusing to many patients, already distressed with their ailments.
Continuity of care needs to be addressed as the home physicians will need to understand and embrace the concept without feeling manipulated.
To really make medical tourism meaningful and safe, insurance companies, governmental agencies and professional organizations like the American Medical Association need to build a region-agnostic ecosystem.
Not only will this allow home hospitals to bid competitively but it will help patients make an informed decision and choose from qualified options — instead of making health decisions based on the slickness of the dvd’s or websites.
Please feel free to comment and if you agree, you are invited to endorse our comments on the magazine’s website here.
Posted in PreviMed-General, Uncategorized | No Comments »
July 14, 2008 by Atul.
IEEE is a well-established brand and represents a large (375,000 members in 160 countries) professional association focused on engineering and technology.
Naturally, we at PreviMed were delighted to be singled out by a blog on its beacon publication IEEE Spectrum which highlighted PreviMed’s presentation at an industry event.
Perhaps the writer was in a hurry, or not very familiar with the concepts around medical tourism. So, to make the post more meaningful, we at PreviMed provided some comments.
To IEEE Spectrum’s credit, our contributions were quickly added in the comments section of the original post and appear below in entirety:
As the founder of PreviMed, I am really surprised with this post as some key facts are left out and gives the reader an unfair portrayal.
Tekla, I wish you, or someone else from your team, had connected with us before posting, just so we could share with you what we are doing and how it is soooo different from what your post conveys.Health related international travel (aka medical tourism) is not a fad but a strong, growing trend - especially for US patients getting treated overseas.
We all would like to get major medical treatment in our home town, surrounded by friends and family. For many people, this is just not possible, primarily because of the costs involved and these folks have to travel overseas if they want to get better. Their only other choice, as we clearly showed, is not to get any treatment at all and just to live with the diagnosed discomfort/pain.
Currently, these patients are subject to - not always but many times - slick misleading presentations from slimy sales agents.
Patients, wanting to resolve the pain, frequently accept the contract without many other characterizing facts and with price as the only factor.
PreviMed changes this in favor of the patient by giving multiple (and multi-dimensional) options; For instance, a patient in US may get a lower priced bid from a hospital in Asia or Eastern Europe but may choose a higher priced bid from a qualified Latin American hospital because of shorter flights or comfort with the Spanish language etc.
Of course, patient makes this decision and with specific details so that their home physician can be consulted before the choice is made.
An important differentiator for PreviMed is that we work only with internationally accredited hospitals (painstakingly reseached and certified to be world-class). Also, we focus only on non-cosmetic, medically required procedures.
PreviMed’s business-to-business focus is also based on our patient-centric values; Our research has confirmed that this will provide better continuity-of-care and post-surgery follow thru. For these reasons, PreviMed engages only through self-insured businesses and insurance companies.
PreviMed’s vision has been appreciated by many patient advocates and we have been credited for bringing the transparency to this overall process. We have also received kudos from many because PreviMed’s business model is straightforward and unconflicted (not paid by the overseas hospitals).
By the way, while our focus is NOT on costs alone, for almost all patients the cost savings are so enormous that the typical offer will typically accommodate a travelling family member and door-to-door concierge and other patient-centered services - the facilities overseas are also wanting to build a great reputation.
For years now, we, as members, have read IEEE Spectrum cover-to-cover at the first chance and have always appreciated its broad range. I hope that I have contributed to the value of your post.
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July 6, 2008 by Atul.
Last week, PreviMed founders were interviewed by a leading, international periodical. Details are available to those who need but, considering long publishing cycles, we will share the highlights to the rest when the publication date draws near. This is not some weekly glossy that is superficial but instead a scholarly magazine with claims of Barack Obama and John McCain among its readers and contributors.
On the subject of periodicals, Fortune magazine is second to no other. It will host a technology conference, later this month, titled “Brainstorm Tech“.
We are hoping to hear soon and it will be both an honor and a pleaseure to present, if we are selected. The event is sponsored by McKinsey and we were nominated in by some friends.
In any case, it is good to be recognized and we are honored to have, in our business circles, good friends and caring associates, which is the subject of this post.
Posted in PreviMed-Intro, PreviMed-General, Uncategorized | No Comments »