more on Outsourcing surgery?

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 15:23:43 -0800
From: Jim Warren <jwarren () well com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Outsourcing surgery?
X-Sender: jwarren () mail well com
To: dave () farber net

Many Americans fly to Bangkok to get needed -- or simply desired -- medical 
and dental procedures ... everything from crucial transplants and sex 
re-assignments to cosmetic surgery and liposuction.  The surgery, hospital 
and drug costs are "almost nothing" by comparison to US medical, surgical 
and hospital charges.

Furthermore, Thai medical and dental practices -- especially from their 
fee-based private-care providers (but also within Bangkok's universal 
healthcare system that is mostly free to all Thai citizens) -- is VERY-well 
reputed, internationally.

(A full professor of cardiology at Stanford Med School who is a good 
friend, has visited Bangkok a number of times, touring their operations and 
giving lectures, and says that the quality of their medical services is 
EXCELLENT!)

An example of cost-effective "surgical outsourcing":

A good friend needed to get an adrenalectomy in late 2001, and wanted it 
done laparoscopically.  She could have had it done here in the U.S. for perhaps
$30,000 (or more!) ... plus unknown additional hospital and drug costs.

Instead, she had it done in Bangkok.  Being a middle-class Thai business 
woman, she could afford to pay the "premium" for private, fee-based medical 
care -- that offers far more convenience and benefits than their 
mostly-free universal healthcare system.  (For instance, she was given the 
private cellphone number of her chief surgeon!  Try to get THAT in the USA!)

As a fee-based private patient, she could and did choose her own surgical 
team -- from Thailand's premier medical school at Mahidol University; a 
team headed by Dr. Narong Lertakuamanee, that nation's top laparoscopic 
surgeon experienced in endocrinology.  It also allowed her to choose the 
facility, Siriraj Hospital.

This is the same medical school and hospital that provides medical services 
for Thai royalty!

If it had been done entirely in a private hospital in Bangkok, the total 
fee for the entire surgical team, surgery, hospital stay, drugs and 
follow-up visits would have been only about $2,600.  Since she was a Thai 
citizen having the surgery and stay in a [premier!] government hospital, 
her total bill was about $720 U.S. (She chose to give them 100,000 Baht -- 
a bit less than $2,600 U.S.)

If she had gone to Singapore -- which also has excellent private/for-fee 
medical services -- it would have cost, much more ... about $10,000-$12,000 
... but even that total is monumentally lower than U.S. fees for the same 
procedure.

And on top of all the rest, medical "outsourcerers" get a "free" trip to 
one of the most fascinating and culturally-rich cities in the 
world!  (E.g., see http://www.bigfoto.com/asia/bangkok/ .)  [Full 
disclosure:  My wife is Thai.]

--jim

I wonder:  With such options available, and U.S. job-loss continuing, will 
we soon hear of out-of-work physicians and near-empty hospitals?

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