Insured in US, treated in Chennai (India) at one-tenth of US cost

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Insured in US, treated in Chennai (India) at one-tenth of US 
cost**
Date:   Thu, 09 Feb 2006 10:55:21 -0500
From:   Ram Narayanan <ram () usindiafriendship us>
To:     dave () farber net



*Dear Dave:

This could well be the beginning of a proces that may eventually result 
in a
multi-billion dollar business between the US and India that will:

1) help significantly reduce the mounting cost of health insurance and 
health care in the United States;

2) encourage a substantial flow of US investment into India?s hospital 
industry and related infrastructure with forward and backward linkages, 
including medical tourism facilities; and

3) contribute considerably to the expansion of health care benefit to 
India?s millions.

What do you think?

Cheers,

Ram Narayanan
US-India Friendship
**
*http://www.usindiafriendship.net/*
*http://www.hindu.com/2006/02/08/stories/2006020817240300.htm*
*
THE HINDU, FEBRUARY 8, 2006

*Insured in U.S., treated in India*

M.Dinesh Varma

CHENNAI : In a twist to the win-win outsourcing game, a U.S. insurance 
firm has extended cover for its Chicago client undergoing treatment in a 
Chennai hospital.

The ball was set rolling when Chicago-based Indian parents of 
three-year-old Rakesh Ram Mahesh expressed a preference to treat their 
son at Frontier Lifeline hospital in Chennai. The boy had been diagnosed 
with a hole in the heart (Ventricular Septal Defect) and aortic valve 
incompetence, which required early correction.

*The insurance company? Blue Cross Blue Shield ? eventually agreed to 
foot the bill, but not without some thorough homework on the track 
record of the institution. The firm went the distance by even 
despatching a team to Chennai to inspect the facilities at the Frontier 
Lifeline.

The inspection team gathered details such as the number of paediatric 
surgeries done the previous year and the mortality rate before the 
sanction came through.
*
"All we were asked to bear was the cost of the flight tickets," said the 
boy?s mother, M. Shakeela, whose husband Murugan Mahesh hails from 
Chennai. They had heard about the hospital from various sources.

"More than promotionals, the expectations sparked by word-of-mouth is 
all the more hard to match," K. M. Cherian, head of Frontier Lifeline 
points out.

*The cost of the surgery here cost only 10 per cent of the $50,000 it 
would have amounted to in any U.S. hospital. After the successful 
surgery last week, Rakesh is due to be discharged on February 11.
*
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