Care coordinators have positioned themselves well to ease this anxiety. Essentially medical travel agents, these providers help surgery-seekers plan and facilitate every step of their trip and seem to have no problem convincing even the most frugal patients that coordination services are essential. Anavara Health & Wellness offers visa and passport arrangements, flight reservations, airport meet-and-greets, ground transportation, accommodations, sightseeing services, interpretation services, concierge services, hospital liaison, and more. Cell phones are also provided in the vehicles that transport patients to and from the airport and hospital so that they can update loved ones at home on their progress if they so choose.
In India, plastic surgeon Dr. Mohan Thomas and his Institute of Cosmetic Surgery offer daily nurse visits, medication, chaperones, and even life coaching. They employ psychologists on staff to help patients navigate the emotional changes that come with physical transformation. The Costa Rica Plastic Surgery Center site allows patients to check for procedures and cultural tours on the same page, with a guaranteed response within 24 hours. Potential patients can wake up one morning, Google “facelift in Costa Rica,” and by the end of the day have a procedure booked, complete with day trips to volcanoes, coffee plantations, and rainforests.
Of course, having the procedure done overseas has its drawbacks: Breast implants aren’t an all-or-nothing thing like an appendix or appendicitis, and like most cosmetic surgeries, they require a little post-op shaping and fine-tuning.
“There’s a risk involved in terms of managing the patient’s expectations,” says Patel, the South African surgeon. “You can only learn so much from a Skype consultation; you can’t really tell until you see the patient’s body.” Patients can purchase medical complication insurance (another fast-growing segment of the industry) to cover potential problems after surgery, but it’s usually only available for the first year, and most cosmetic surgeries take at least that long just to heal.
Why you should incorporate a doctor’s visit into your next vacation
Without a referral or guidance from their primary care physician, many patients choose to fill out the paperwork themselves, which can have disastrous consequences. Symptoms such as high blood pressure often go unreported and don’t show up until pre-op testing is done, or even during surgery. This can result in a patient being sent home without reimbursement for travel expenses, or worse, suffering cardiac arrest on the operating table, a dangerous situation in a clinic that may or may not be equipped to handle an emergency.
In the past, safety and standards in foreign hospitals were also a major concern, but today, most surgeons and medical professionals work only with hospitals and recovery centers accredited by internationally reputed accreditation agencies, and the care provided is getting closer to Western standards every day.
“The quality of medical care in the U.S. is not as good as we think it is,” says Julie Munro, president of the Medical Tourism Quality Alliance (MTQUA), an international organization that evaluates and monitors the standards of care at hospitals around the world. Munro says U.S. hospitals lack empathy and awareness of special needs, leaving foreign hospitals (and the coordinators who send tourists there) scrambling to fill the void. According to a joint study by Visa and Oxford Economics, the medical tourism industry is worth $45.5 billion to $72 billion and is expected to grow up to 25% annually over the next decade, and it’s easy to see why.
As providers see more profit, patients are increasingly sold additional services that drive up the cost of care. For an industry born out of desperation and bargain hunting, these upsells feel more like opportunism than patient-centered care. Elective surgeries are inherently risky, and performing them without the guidance of a primary care physician should not be actively encouraged. Of course, it’s hard to say no to a nurse poolside tending to your every need, but surgery is still surgery, no matter how luxurious your recovery.
