Americans look to India for medical treatment, and India is shining for sure!!!

With the spiralling cost of healthcare, Am¡ericans whose jobs have been outsourced to India may end up coming here just to get cheaper, more high quality medical treatment.

The Wall Street Journal this week did a feature on Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Ltd. in Hyderabad, which has treated some 60,000 foreigners over the last three years.

It tracked a Terry Salo of Victoria, in Canada's British Columbia province, who faced an unbearably painful and long wait for hip replacement until he decided to get the surgery done last year at Apollo at a fraction of what it might have cost him in the US or Europe.

"People need to know that there are other options out there," said Salo, 54, who was swinging golf clubs a month after the operation.

Not only does Apollo give billing and other services to American insurance companies and US hospitals, it also provides actual medical inpatient care to foreigners willing to take the chance, thus putting paid to nay-sayers against outsourcing jobs to India.

"The company has capitalised on the high cost of healthcare administration in the US and demands of patients elsewhere, for fast, inexpensive treatment," said the Wall Street Journal.

"In seeking to provide a wide range of services at a large discount to Western competitors, Apollo is yet another Indian company threatening jobs in the US and other countries.

"On the other hand, Apollo's relatively inexpensive medical services have benefited patients from numerous countries", thus creating the dilemma in the outsourcing debate.

"We're showing that a field like medicine is very much a two-way street," Apollo founder Prathap C. Reddy, 72, told the Journal. "We can all grow from each other's strengths."

Founded in 1983, Apollo's meteoric rise is being copied by other Indian private hospitals that are expanding to accommodate foreign patients.

Educational institutions in India are not just turning out IT professionals but are also producing 20,000 doctors and 30,000 nurses a year, the Journal noted.

The prices Apollo charges for procedures are phenomenally less than those at American hospitals ($4,000 for cardiac surgery compared to $30,000 in the US). Analysts and the Indian government have identified India's "medical tourism" as a major growth industry.

After practicing in the US, Reddy returned to India in 1970 and pledged to build a state-of-the-art medical care facility, which he did, going public to raise funds, and attracting foreign investors.

He expanded all the time and got his four daughters involved in managing the company. Though right now, foreign patients make up only seven to nine percent, Reddy expects that to rise to 25 percent soon.

The company treats some poorer patients and gives long-distance medical aid to the poor, in the face of criticism that its costs are too high for the regular Indian citizen.

Apart from some free beds in the hospital, Apollo has used new technologies to reach remoter areas and set up some 60 "tele-medicine" centres.

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hate blaster

WOW... great article.. Thanks Guru !

Keep it up !

Regards.
Biomed

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"Change before you have to" : Jack Welch

This is really interesting and as an Indian, I feel proud to hear about this. I certainly hope they do more to reach the poor rather than just cater to rich foreigners and Indians.

Anyways, Indian doctors have proved their mettle in North America already. Especially in the U.S., they have done very well for themselves and have built a robust reputation. I think with sky-rocketing costs in the U.S. and long delays in Canada, this trend will be on the rise.

Just hope India does not end up being used as an "organ-donor" country.

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One further note, please take the time to title your post with a something meaningful rather than something like "One more".

And I know a lot of people have been doing this in the past, but please posts NewsPaper clippings into the "News and Events" section, not the General Chat section.

Since we have a specific section for this, might as well make good use.

Thanks.

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