While patients in the U.S. have traveled abroad to seek competitively priced care in recent years, the medical tourism trend is now growing domestically. Employers are urging workers to seek out the best prices for costly procedures such as hip and knee replacements and cardiac bypasses within the borders of the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reports.
The fear of losing revenue for these procedures overseas has prompted hospitals in the U.S. to compete on price with purveyors of medical tourism in India and other developing countries. A number of U.S. hospitals are pro-actively contacting large employers to entice them to send employees to their facilities instead.
Earlier this year, after U.S. supermarket chain Hannaford Brothers announced it was sending employees to Singapore for more affordable hip and knee replacements, the company director of health and wellness was contacted by several U.S. hospitals who wanted to win his business. Hannaford is in the process of negotiating deals with hospitals in Massachusetts and Maine, where the company has its headquarters.
For more:
- check out the Wall Street Journal's article