Yeah, sure they are
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nationworld/stories/072807dninthospitals.36608c1.html
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U.S. patients choosing Mexican hospitals for price, quality
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11:29 AM CDT on Monday, July 30, 2007
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By ALFREDO CORCHADO and LAURENCE ILIFF / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected], [email protected][/SIZE]
First in an occasional series
When Carrollton resident Brian Woods needed laser eye surgery last year, he scrutinized options in North Texas for the best deal.
McAllen resident Cesar Vega was concerned about the long wait he faced to treat his broken leg after a motorcycle accident during the weekend leading into the July 4 holiday.
Both ended up in Monterrey, Mexico. Traditionally, the city's affluent residents have traveled to Dallas, Houston or San Antonio for their medical needs.
Also Online
North Texas-based hospital companies' Mexico locations (.pdf)
"All around I was very impressed, and the experience surpassed any expectation I had," Mr. Woods said. "I could have been in Zurich, Switzerland, but it was Mexico. I found the care to be top quality, what you would expect at a U.S. hospital and more."
Like vacations in sparkling Cancún or Cabo San Lucas, health care in Mexico is becoming high-quality, cheap and convenient, advocates say. As more Americans go without heath insurance or feel the pinch of managed care, some are making a run for the border for treatment ranging from routine care to live-saving procedures.
Two North Texas-based hospital chains, Christus Health of Irving and International Hospital Corp. of Dallas, are tapping into a need and an opportunity by providing in their hospitals in Mexico what their executives say are the best of both worlds U.S.-quality health care and relatively low Mexican prices.
"Our goal is to have the safest hospitals in the international market," said Cliff Orme, CEO of International Hospital Corp. "We're implementing U.S. standards into these hospitals so you won't notice the difference going to a hospital in Dallas than one in a Latin American country."
Some experts, including Peter Maddox of Christus Health, see Mexico as an answer to the complex question of how to treat aging and underinsured Americans at a time when the retirement of baby boomers will further tax the U.S. health care system. An estimated 43 million Americans, about 15 percent of the population, are uninsured, according to a
Census Bureau study.
"Our country will go broke unless we find a health care alternative," said Mr. Maddox, Christus' senior vice president for business, strategy and corporate development. "Mexico is a wonderful alternative with incredible potential."
A new kind of tourist
Indeed, Mexico is becoming a top destination for the multibillion-dollar "medical tourism" industry, joining countries including India, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. Experts estimate as many as 150,000 Americans travel abroad every year for lower-cost medical care.
Although care in Mexico may not be as inexpensive as care in some Asian nations, the proximity to the U.S. is a big advantage to patients. Some U.S. companies are now sending employees to Mexico for their annual checkups.
Underscoring the trend, Mexican state governments are spending money to refurbish communities near these hospitals, hoping visiting patients will stay there while receiving medical care or even move there permanently. Such is the case in Santa Eulalia, Chihuahua, and Villa de Santiago, near Monterrey.
"We think that Villa de Santiago could also be an area for the retirees from the United States," said Alejandro Paez Aragón, secretary of economic development for the state of Nuevo León. "Our aim is to turn Monterrey into one of the world's medical tourism leaders in the next five to 10 years, and we're well on our way."
David Warner, a health researcher at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the
University of Texas at Austin, said the hospitals run by U.S. companies are primarily for Mexicans, but they also hope to attract medical tourism, Americans without insurance and Mexicans living in the U.S. "And they'd like to get some U.S. insurers to cover them," he added.
But Mexico faces serious challenges in trying to become a world leader in the medical tourism industry. A turf war among drug traffickers is keeping some tourists away. Monterrey, in particular, has seen a surge of drug-related killings in recent months.
"Their plans aren't worth a thing if it's not safe to come here," said Luis Moreno, U.S. consul general in Monterrey.
And Dr. Warner, the UT health researcher, said that surveys done by his students show that many Americans are pleased with the "tender loving care" they received in Mexico, but others have found services to be substandard.
Nonetheless, over the next 10 years, Christus Muguerza, a partnership of Christus Health and Monterrey-based Muguerza, has identified 40 communities along the U.S.-Mexico border where it plans to expand. And International Hospital Corp. is finishing a new hospital in Puebla, near Mexico City.
"I have patients coming here from Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio," said Michael Tarabay, director International Hospital Corp.'s Santa Engracia hospital in Monterrey. "Whether you leave from Dallas, San Antonio, Houston or Austin, it's about an hour plane ride, a 20-minute taxi ride, and you're here."
Cheaper care
Mr. Orme, International's CEO, said that his company's hospitals served "several hundred" American clients last year and that Santa Engracia has served about 300 so far this year.
Mexico is on average 40 percent cheaper for basic surgical procedures, Mr. Warner and officials for both hospital companies said.
A bill in the Texas Legislature sponsored this year by Sen.
Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, would have allowed U.S.-based insurers to cover health services in Mexico with the goal of making policies affordable for uninsured groups like the working poor. There was also a House version of the bill.
Coverage would have been limited to Texans who live within 75 miles of the border. The bill did not get out of committee.
"We have a crisis right now," Mr. Lucio said in an e-mail. "There are simply too many residents in Texas lacking health care coverage. Cross-border health plans present an opportunity to increase our rates of private health insurance coverage, particularly in an area of high poverty and greatest need."
Cross-border health insurance plans typically cost 40 percent less than traditional policies, he said.
"Cross-border health plans have been effective in California, and the primary concern for me is how we can address the lack of health care coverage along the border," he said.
For now, most Americans coming to Mexico for health care are considered "medical refugees," as in the case of Mr. Woods, 43, a network engineer. He visited a Christus Muguerza hospital in Monterrey last Christmas and stayed with his wife's relatives there. He had looked into getting laser eye surgery close to home, but the cost made that impossible, he said. U.S. doctors wanted to charge him $4,000, Mr. Woods said, but he paid $1,500 in Mexico.
"People were very cordial, warm," Mr. Woods said of the experience. "They treated me very well, and I wouldn't hesitate returning for other medical procedures."
Mr. Vega's wife, Adriana, said the couple had a similar experience.
She frantically checked South Texas hospitals after her husband's motorcycle accident, but was told hospitals were short-staffed before the holiday weekend. When Mr. Vega was examined, he was told he would have to wait more than 72 hours for treatment for his broken leg, she said.
The exam alone cost $1,000, she said.
Furious, Ms. Vega told her husband, "We're going to Monterrey."
Once there, he was immediately admitted and operated on, she said. "I drove back to Texas two days later."
The couple paid about $4,000 one-third of what she was told the treatment would cost in Texas.
"I thought the quality was the same as any U.S. hospital," she said. "What really stood apart, however, was the service. The Mexicans were much more cordial, warmer. Here in the U.S., everyone is worried about being sued, especially doctors. No one seems to smile."
Impossible in the U.S.
Christus Murguerza's specialties include cardiology, orthopedics, oncology, transplants and plastic surgery. Its hospitals in Monterrey boast state-of-the-art telemedicine systems, which allow doctors to monitor and follow up with patients anywhere in the world in hospitals that share this technology.
International Hospital Corp.'s Santa Engracia hospital is in an upscale neighborhood, near hotels that give a preferential rate to hospital patients.
In the hospital itself, a private room looks more like a hotel suite, with a separate living room, two televisions and space for an entire family for $300 per night something unthinkable in the United States, said hospital director Mr. Tarabay, who has managed U.S. hospitals.
About 90 percent of Santa Engracia patients are well-off or well-insured Mexicans, many of whom used to go to Texas for top-notch health care. Mr. Moreno, the U.S. consul in Monterrey, said he bought a home for retirement in San Antonio, in part to be close to the medical facilities in Monterrey, a four-hour drive away.
"They have a cultural thing here in Mexico where you're not treated like a number," said Mr. Moreno. "Without a doubt, these are the best medical facilities that I've ever seen in my foreign-service career."
