BehindTheMedspeak: Medical Tourism

Prediction: This will be one of the great growth industries of the next 20 years.

Why?

Because when you can get a heart valve replacement by a U.S. or U.K. board-certified cardiac surgeon for $9,000 in India — vs. $160,000 in the U.S. — not only individuals but insurance companies are going to sit up and take notice.

Prediction #2: If you're not willing to go abroad for an expensive procedure, your insurance company will refuse to pay for it.

It's amazing how economics can create a whole new standard of care.

For example, once upon a time back in the late 20th century, every patient scheduled for elective surgery was required to have a pre-op chest x-ray and EKG.

No matter that they were always normal: it was the standard of care.

Then some studies showed that they were always normal, or close enough: suddenly insurance didn't cover those tests and by some miracle of medical revisionism, they were no longer necessary.

They never were — but as long as someone else paid for them, who cared?

Same deal with your heart valve replacement circa 2020: go to Mumbai or learn to live with things as they are.

Cindy Loose briefly reviewed Woodman's book (top) in the April 15, 2007 Washington Post Travel section; her piece follows.

Road Reads: "Patients Beyond Borders" by Josef Woodman

Target audience: Anyone contemplating going abroad for dental or medical procedures.

Forget shady Mexican clinics for phony cancer treatments. Today, more than 100 American-accredited hospitals around the world — particularly in Asia — offer complex, high-tech treatments, often in luxurious hospitals and recuperation centers.

Medical tourism is hot. Brits and Canadians, to cite two examples, head overseas to avoid long waits in a socialized medical environment. Americans are more likely to be looking for a better price. As Woodman's book notes, price differences can be so dramatic that they more than make up for the cost of traveling. Typical cost of a heart valve replacement in the United States: $160,000. In India: $9,000. Thailand: $10,000. Singapore: $12,500.

Woodman's book is a practical guide to planning a medical trip, from how to identify a respectable hospital to warnings that cross-border malpractice lawsuits are so impractical that you should consider them impossible. The best hospitals abroad maintain standards "equal to, or higher than" those in the United States, and some boast lower morbidity rates, Woodman writes, although his book doesn't delve into specific stats.

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If I were really interested in making a fortune I'd start a company devoted to nothing but the very best in medical tourism.

Unlimited upside.