India outsourcing a cure-all
Saritha Rai | The New York Times
Until recently, real estate agent Robert Beeney lived in pain. But when he finally decided to do something about the discomfort, he spurned the usual choices.
His doctors advised that he get his hip joint replaced, which his insurer would pay for, but after doing some research on the internet, he decided to get a different procedure - joint resurfacing - not covered by his insurance. And instead of going to a San Francisco hospital, he chose to go to India and paid $US6,600 ($8600), a fraction of the $US25,000 he would have paid at home.
Beeney flew to Hyderabad and had the surgery at Apollo Hospital by a London-trained specialist, Vijay Bose. Two weeks later, Beeney says that he was walking around the Taj Mahal "like any other tourist".
His story is increasingly common, as Europeans and Americans, looking for world-class treatment at prices a fourth or fifth of what they would be at home, are travelling to India. Modern hospitals, skilled doctors and advanced treatments are helping foreigners overcome some of their qualms about getting treatment in India.
Even as politicians and workers' groups oppose the corporate practice of outsourcing, Beeney and patients like him are literally outsourcing themselves - not only in India but also in countries like Thailand and Singapore - for all kinds of medical services from cosmetic to critical surgeries.
About 150,000 foreigners visited India for medical treatments in the year to March 2004, the Confederation of Indian Industry said. That number was projected to rise by 15per cent each year for the next several years. Consultancy McKinsey & Co says foreign visitors will help Indian hospitals earn about $US2.3 billion by 2012.
"Health is an emotional issue; it's not like buying a toy or a shirt made abroad," said a health-care analyst for McKinsey, Gautam Kumra. "Nevertheless, you cannot deny the power of economics."
For some foreigners, like George Marshall from England, India's hospitals also offer speedier treatments. Last year, Marshall says that he started having trouble finishing a round of golf. An angiogram showed two blocked arteries in his heart. With the British National Health Service, Marshall would have had to wait three weeks to see a specialist, and six more months for coronary bypass surgery. "At 73, I don't have the time to wait," Marshall says. "Six months could be the rest of my life." Nor could he afford the $US38,000 for surgery at a private hospital.
After an internet search and a chance meeting with a businessman who had gone to India for surgery, Marshall travelled to the Wockhardt Hospital in Bangalore in southern India. His surgeon, Vivek Jawali, had trained at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. The men chatted about British politics and Jawali gave Marshall his cellphone number and said that he was available 24hours. A surprised Marshall says that in the British health system, "you are just a number, but here you are a person." Including travel expenses, the surgery cost him $US8400.
While the number of patients from the West is still small in India, the trend is expected to grow as populations age and health costs balloon. In India, cardiac surgeries cost about one-fifth of what they would in the US; orthopedic treatments cost about one-fourth as much and cataract surgeries are as low as one-tenth of their cost at American hospitals. Kumra, the McKinsey health consultant who also advises the car industry, noted that corporations like General Motors spend $US5 billion on health care annually. "When you buy a GM car, you are helping GM fund $US2000 or $US3000 towards health-care costs of retired workers," he says.
To curb spending, corporations are being forced to look for creative, low-cost solutions. For instance, radiologists working for Wipro, a software and information technology company based in Bangalore, analyse X-rays and scans from US hospitals for a fraction of the cost. SRL Ranbaxy, a New Delhi-based diagnostics firm, tests blood serum and tissue samples from British hospitals. Health specialists say that sending patients to India for treatment is not as unthinkable as it was 20 years ago.
"India is well-positioned to expand into this area of outsourcing," says John Lovelock, a global industries analyst for Gartner. "India is equipped to provide long-term, labour-intensive, in-patient rehabilitation services, which are under-serviced in North America," he says.
Apollo Hospital's founder, Prathap Reddy, a surgeon trained at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, says that health care in India has changed drastically from the time he returned to open his first hospital in 1983.
"Then, all rich Indians rushed overseas for medical help." Now, Reddy has 200 doctors on his staff who are qualified to work in the US, and has many wealthy Indian expatriates as clients.
Still, some hospitals in India are discovering that affordable costs and foreign-trained doctors may not be enough to make India a global health-care destination. The country's dilapidated airports, garbage-strewn streets and overcrowded slums can put off even the hardiest foreigners.
"Some foreign patients arrived at the airport and took the next flight back," says Reddy, who has been trying to persuade the local government in Chennai to clear the slum next to his hospital. "I can change the insides of my hospitals," he says, "but I cannot change the airports and roads."
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Is this the next wave of outsourcing? Are our hospitals and medical costs that expensive that patients will travel overseas to get treatment? I think this is big news and reminds us how big and real globalization really is. People around the world are using our educational system against us. Who knows, maybe in the long run this will be good news for the US.
Globalization has really boosted India to the top of the world stage. I am grateful for that. This country is the world's biggest democracy, and instead of strengthening our alliance with it, we are sending it mixed messages by treating it as a equal to that of its enemy next door. As the US moves into the future, we will need India more and more. The future of the world is not with America or Europe anymore, its with China, India and Asia in general.
I don't think most Americans are fully aware that the world is stepping up its game and catching up rapidly. Think its time for America to change its game as well and position ourselves according to this fast changing world? I think so. We need another goal, another great goal that will inspire greatness. Like the moonshot target of Kennedy which created thousands of scientists, engineers and thousands of new inventions. That ultimately led America to become the powerhouse in the world in terms of science and innovation. We are losing our lead. It is interesting however that a lot of specialized doctors in the top hospitals in India are actually educated in the United States. To some people though, the choice is pretty easy, they would rather travel to India and pay $8,000 rather than pay 4 or 5 times that amount in their home country.
Saritha Rai | The New York Times
Until recently, real estate agent Robert Beeney lived in pain. But when he finally decided to do something about the discomfort, he spurned the usual choices.
His doctors advised that he get his hip joint replaced, which his insurer would pay for, but after doing some research on the internet, he decided to get a different procedure - joint resurfacing - not covered by his insurance. And instead of going to a San Francisco hospital, he chose to go to India and paid $US6,600 ($8600), a fraction of the $US25,000 he would have paid at home.
Beeney flew to Hyderabad and had the surgery at Apollo Hospital by a London-trained specialist, Vijay Bose. Two weeks later, Beeney says that he was walking around the Taj Mahal "like any other tourist".
His story is increasingly common, as Europeans and Americans, looking for world-class treatment at prices a fourth or fifth of what they would be at home, are travelling to India. Modern hospitals, skilled doctors and advanced treatments are helping foreigners overcome some of their qualms about getting treatment in India.
Even as politicians and workers' groups oppose the corporate practice of outsourcing, Beeney and patients like him are literally outsourcing themselves - not only in India but also in countries like Thailand and Singapore - for all kinds of medical services from cosmetic to critical surgeries.
About 150,000 foreigners visited India for medical treatments in the year to March 2004, the Confederation of Indian Industry said. That number was projected to rise by 15per cent each year for the next several years. Consultancy McKinsey & Co says foreign visitors will help Indian hospitals earn about $US2.3 billion by 2012.
"Health is an emotional issue; it's not like buying a toy or a shirt made abroad," said a health-care analyst for McKinsey, Gautam Kumra. "Nevertheless, you cannot deny the power of economics."
For some foreigners, like George Marshall from England, India's hospitals also offer speedier treatments. Last year, Marshall says that he started having trouble finishing a round of golf. An angiogram showed two blocked arteries in his heart. With the British National Health Service, Marshall would have had to wait three weeks to see a specialist, and six more months for coronary bypass surgery. "At 73, I don't have the time to wait," Marshall says. "Six months could be the rest of my life." Nor could he afford the $US38,000 for surgery at a private hospital.
After an internet search and a chance meeting with a businessman who had gone to India for surgery, Marshall travelled to the Wockhardt Hospital in Bangalore in southern India. His surgeon, Vivek Jawali, had trained at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. The men chatted about British politics and Jawali gave Marshall his cellphone number and said that he was available 24hours. A surprised Marshall says that in the British health system, "you are just a number, but here you are a person." Including travel expenses, the surgery cost him $US8400.
While the number of patients from the West is still small in India, the trend is expected to grow as populations age and health costs balloon. In India, cardiac surgeries cost about one-fifth of what they would in the US; orthopedic treatments cost about one-fourth as much and cataract surgeries are as low as one-tenth of their cost at American hospitals. Kumra, the McKinsey health consultant who also advises the car industry, noted that corporations like General Motors spend $US5 billion on health care annually. "When you buy a GM car, you are helping GM fund $US2000 or $US3000 towards health-care costs of retired workers," he says.
To curb spending, corporations are being forced to look for creative, low-cost solutions. For instance, radiologists working for Wipro, a software and information technology company based in Bangalore, analyse X-rays and scans from US hospitals for a fraction of the cost. SRL Ranbaxy, a New Delhi-based diagnostics firm, tests blood serum and tissue samples from British hospitals. Health specialists say that sending patients to India for treatment is not as unthinkable as it was 20 years ago.
"India is well-positioned to expand into this area of outsourcing," says John Lovelock, a global industries analyst for Gartner. "India is equipped to provide long-term, labour-intensive, in-patient rehabilitation services, which are under-serviced in North America," he says.
Apollo Hospital's founder, Prathap Reddy, a surgeon trained at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, says that health care in India has changed drastically from the time he returned to open his first hospital in 1983.
"Then, all rich Indians rushed overseas for medical help." Now, Reddy has 200 doctors on his staff who are qualified to work in the US, and has many wealthy Indian expatriates as clients.
Still, some hospitals in India are discovering that affordable costs and foreign-trained doctors may not be enough to make India a global health-care destination. The country's dilapidated airports, garbage-strewn streets and overcrowded slums can put off even the hardiest foreigners.
"Some foreign patients arrived at the airport and took the next flight back," says Reddy, who has been trying to persuade the local government in Chennai to clear the slum next to his hospital. "I can change the insides of my hospitals," he says, "but I cannot change the airports and roads."
Text
----------
Is this the next wave of outsourcing? Are our hospitals and medical costs that expensive that patients will travel overseas to get treatment? I think this is big news and reminds us how big and real globalization really is. People around the world are using our educational system against us. Who knows, maybe in the long run this will be good news for the US.
Globalization has really boosted India to the top of the world stage. I am grateful for that. This country is the world's biggest democracy, and instead of strengthening our alliance with it, we are sending it mixed messages by treating it as a equal to that of its enemy next door. As the US moves into the future, we will need India more and more. The future of the world is not with America or Europe anymore, its with China, India and Asia in general.
I don't think most Americans are fully aware that the world is stepping up its game and catching up rapidly. Think its time for America to change its game as well and position ourselves according to this fast changing world? I think so. We need another goal, another great goal that will inspire greatness. Like the moonshot target of Kennedy which created thousands of scientists, engineers and thousands of new inventions. That ultimately led America to become the powerhouse in the world in terms of science and innovation. We are losing our lead. It is interesting however that a lot of specialized doctors in the top hospitals in India are actually educated in the United States. To some people though, the choice is pretty easy, they would rather travel to India and pay $8,000 rather than pay 4 or 5 times that amount in their home country.
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