22 June 2010
BEIRUT: Lebanon is currently a hub for plastic surgery in the Middle East, but it may also be poised to become a leading destination for medical tourism from the United States.
As the US does not have a nationally-funded health care system, Americans must rely either on themselves or their insurance providers to pay for medical care. The result is often catastrophic: a study by the Harvard Law School has shown that around 700,000 Americans go bankrupt every year because of exorbitant medical bills.
Sarkis Khoury, a Lebanese-American professor of finance at the University of California, believes a solution lies in shifting medical care to other countries. In May, he launched Global Medical Excellence (GME), a company that cut the costs of medical and plastic surgeries by shifting care to Asian countries and Lebanon.
“A patient in the US is either faced with the full cost of surgery or co-payment, usually between 20 to 30 percent, with the insurance company,” Khoury told The Daily Star. “An open-heart surgery operation costs $150,000, which means the patient has to pay around $30,000 [if insured]. That is out of reach for most people.”
GME offers treatment with US-trained and certified doctors for a fraction of the cost of treatment in the US. An open-heart surgery operation, together with plane tickets, hotels, a personal care manager and all other transfers and services, costs $12,000 in India and $22,000 in Lebanon. “You can have access to excellent care without going bankrupt,” Sarkis says.
All hospitals used by GME have been accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI), a rigorous US hospital accreditation system. In Lebanon, operations are performed at the American University of Beirut and Clemenceau Medical Center.
“The quality of treatment is as good, if not better, as any US hospital,” says Sarkis. “The only difference for the patient is location.” The service might not solve the problem of America’s medical care, but it will “help save a lot of lives” and money for ordinary people, he adds.
Lebanon has the potential to “become a huge center for medical tourism,” Sarkis says, noting that over 1 million Americans travel abroad annually for plastic surgery alone. Lebanon and India “offer some of the finest care in the world.”
GME will also be bringing internationally renowned plastic surgeons to Lebanon. Rather than shopping around for the best-priced surgery, Arabs wanting to go under the knife can ask GME to bid for a top US doctor.
The doctor with the lowest price is then brought to Beirut for the surgery. “We’ll bring some of the biggest names in plastic surgery to the patient,” Sarkis says. – The Daily Star
Copyright The Daily Star 2010.
