United States healthcare related entities including insurance companies, self-insured employers, third party administrators, hospitals, physician practices, managed care organizations and many others are all packing their shorts, flip flops and sunscreen and heading south to this year’s 4th Annual Medical Travel Business Summit being held in Costa Rica, April 24th-26th. With the recent passing of Obamacare, healthcare companies in the U.S. are all looking for ways to control the increasing costs that are headed their way, while being able to maintain a high level of care for their members, employees and patients.
According to American Medical News, many forward thinking companies such as Wal-Mart, Boeing Co., Lowe’s, and PepsiCo have already began to include medical tourism in their healthcare plans, while others are headed to Costa Rica to see and hear for themselves about the fast moving medical tourism henomenon.
This year’s Medical Travel Business Summit, which is being hosted on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast at the Marriot Los Suenos Ocean & Golf Resort by PROMED, the Costa Rican Tourism Board and the World Institute of Surgical Excellence, is focused on being able to connect U.S. healthcare companies such as insurance companies, self-insured companies, third party administrators, managed care organizations and all others who are focused on being able to decrease their healthcare costs in the face of Obamacare, while maintaining a high level of care for their members and employees.
The Medical Travel Summit will bring these U.S. companies together to see, hear and interact with Costa Rica’s top hospitals and doctors on topics that cover how sending their members and employees to Costa Rica for their medical care is the best option to decrease their healthcare costs. Additionally, Costa Rica’s healthcare system, which is ranked ahead of the United States by the World Health Organization for quality of care, aims to educate U.S. companies on how their members and employees will have a higher level of care, while getting to recover in a tropical paradise and save an average of 50-70% off the cost of the exact same procedures performed in the U.S.
Massimo Manzi, Executive Director for PROMED, the Council for the International Promotion of Costa Rican Medicine, says “the Medical Travel Summit creates an ideal environment for U.S. companies to learn about Costa Rica’s high quality medicine directly from our providers of healthcare”. Some of the individuals and companies speaking at this year’s Medical Travel Summit include Costa Rica’s Minister of Health, the past president of Costa Rica, Jose Figueres, and the medical tourism company, “WISE”, the World Institute of Surgical Excellence.
There will also be guided tours of Costa Rica’s top hospitals, breakout sessions to discuss topics of interest such as new procedures to solve vexing health problems, medical travel and the U.S. perspective, opportunities and challenges facing medical tourism for companies, presenting a medical travel option to employees, and many other hot medical tourism topics.
With over 20 countries, 150 self-insured and insurance companies, and an additional 350 healthcare related professionals expected to be in attendance at this year’s Medical Travel Summit in Costa Rica, it is safe to say that there is clear shift in thought towards a global healthcare market and a new paradigm for receiving affordable, high quality, patient centered healthcare outside of the United States.
The World Institute of Surgical Excellence “WISE” is the world’s largest medical tourism company with offices and employees in every major U.S. city and a full operations team to receive and care for patients in their destination countries. WISE educates prospective medical tourism patients, coordinates every aspect of their trip, and personally assists them through every step of the patient process, both domestic and abroad, from the moment of first contact through the last post-operative check-up back home in the United States.
The Council for the International Promotion of Costa Rica Medicine PROMED is the private not-for-profit organization that coordinates the efforts carried out to ensure the quality of services provided by the private health industry in Costa Rica and their international promotion, with the intention of consolidating the country as a center for global medicine and a major destination for medical tourism.
For additional information on the 4th Annual Medical Travel Business Summit being hosted in Costa Rica, April 24th-26th, or to register to attend, please, contact:
Anthony King, Vice President of Sales & Marketing with WISE
Direct: 800-601-4160
Email: AKing@WiseMDs.com
Web: www.WiseMDs.com
source: http://www.news.co.cr / Costa Rica News, Health News / by Marcel Evans / February 20th, 2013
