Outsourcing Medical Care

Blue Ridge Paper Products Inc. located in Canton, NC is embarking on a new idea to save money in this difficult healthcare environment. The company is evidently self-insured and in its 101st year of operation. They recently sent an employee to New Delhi to have his gallstones removed and his rotator cuff repaired.

It costs them less to send the patient 7800 miles to New Delhi than nine miles to the closest hospital. The estimated cost of the procedures locally would have been around $100,000 compared to roughly $20,000 in India.

The company paid for the travel expenses and gave the patient a $10,000 bonus for choosing this option.

More and more overseas hospitals are asking for JCAHO accreditation and to become providers in numerous health plans.

This will certainly raise questions in the medical-legal realm and challenge some of the current practices here in the states. Follow-up care, complications, medical standards, surgical training and a whole host of other issues will need to be considered.

In the meantime, outsourcing is now a reality for healthcare.