Home Patient Stories Hip Resurfacing Testimonials FOX News: Birmingham hip resurfacing BHR in India - Milan Indiana patient story FOX News: Birmingham hip resurfacing BHR in India - Milan Indiana patient story BIRMINGHAM HIP RESURFACING STORY ON FOX NEWS Transcript of the news video Anchor: The high cost of health care has some Americans traveling across the world for bariatric, orthopedic, and other types of surgeries. Tonight we introduce you to an Indiana woman who has found that medical tourism is the answer to her health problems. Anchor: Kathie T could not stand the pain. Kathie: The last 2 years it has really been painful. It’s very hard not to be very depressed because I can’t go out in the yard and just walk around the yard. I fall. And if I fall I have to have someone with me. Anchor: A doctor informed the Milan, Indiana woman that she needed hip replacement, a procedure she simply could not afford. Kathie: Some of my quotes were as low as $50,000. The highest was $100,000 with rehab. Anchor: Since she had no health insurance and didn’t qualify for Medicaid, Kathie searched the Internet. Kathie: One more time I got on and I searched the Internet and Healthbase came up. Anchor: Healthbase is a medical tourism agency in Boston that helps patients get the health procedures they need at a much lower cost than they would find in the United States. But there is a catch – the hospitals are very far away. In Kathie’s case, the hospital is in Mumbai, India, (formerly Bombay). Anchor: A Hip Resurfacing Procedure costs $7,500 including two weeks in a private hospital suite, laundry service, food & beverages, tests and rehab, and a companion could come along. It sounded too good to be true. Kathie: Just that, you know, how can it be so inexpensive there compared over here! And, why have I never heard of anybody around me or on the news that ever said they had done anything like this. Kathie: More Americans are starting to do it. We talked by phone with the spokesperson for Healthbase about the growing medical tourism industry. Healthbase spokesperson: We partner with high quality hospitals which are able to provide low cost medical treatment in various countries like India, Thailand, Singapore, Mexico and we are constantly expanding our network. Dr. Lillemoe: It’s a reflection of what’s broken with respect to health care in this country. Anchor: Dr. Keith Lillemoe chairs the surgery department at the IU School of Medicine. Dr. Lillemoe: The cost of practicing medicine in this country is driven up by a lot of factors, the least of which is the salaries of the physicians and the nurses. There is a lot of administrative cost. There’s malpractice cost. There’s bureaucracy built into our healthcare system that really runs up the cost of medicine and I think these other countries have found a way to get out of those costs and offer cheaper product. Anchor: So last month Kathie packed her bags for a 19-hour flight from New York to India. Kathie’s doctor in India: Tell me if it hurts and I’ll stop. Anchor: This is video provided by Healthbase of Kathie meeting with her doctor in India, the day before her six and a half hour hip resurfacing procedure. Unlike a total hip replacement, metal implants were put in leaving more of the bone in place. Kathie’s physiotherapist in India: One… Two… Are you feeling it there? Kathie: Yes. Anchor: The post surgery therapy was intense. She only had 10 days before it was time to return to Indiana. Anchor: A month later we returned to Milan to see Kathie enjoying the outdoors for the first time in 2 and half years. Kathie: I feel 30 years younger, healthier than I can remember being in years. Anchor: She is even gardening – an outdoor exercise to go along with the home rehab exercises the doctor prescribed. Anchor: But what if there are complications from the surgery? Dr. Lillemoe: What happens is there is a complication that either can’t be taken care of at the specialty hospitals or if they come back to this country after their procedure and run into complications? Who is going to take care of those and then in the cases for the uninsured, who is going to pay for the care that’s associated with the complications? Kathie: I have all my boxes with the part number on them. So I guess they go in and redo a piece. Anchor: But even if Kathie had to return to India, at the same $7,500 price it would take 6 more trips to equal what one surgery would cost in the United States. Kathie: United States doesn’t take care of its own citizens, at least for the price that I paid for over there. Anchor: Some employers in the United States and insurance companies are looking at overseas medical care as an option for employees and customers. Anchor: You can learn more about the growing medical tourism industry by logging on to Healthbase.com.   < Prev   Next > [ Back ]

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