Healthbase Helps Americans Get Birmingham Hip Resurfacing Surgery in India

[FayeforCure]

For every ONE Canadian that conservatives find who travels to the US with pockets full of money for medical procedures, there are literally tens of thousands of Americans that travel to India for those same procedures:

Healthbase Helps Americans Get Birmingham Hip Resurfacing Surgery in India

Healthbase has helped patient get hip resurfacing surgery in India. The unavailability of Birmingham hip resurfacing surgery drives not only scores of Americans and Canadians

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRLog (Press Release) â€" Jun 28, 2008 â€" Healthbase has helped a Mexican patient get hip resurfacing surgery in India. The unavailability of Birmingham hip resurfacing surgery drives not only scores of Americans and Canadians but also Mexicans and many others overseas to India and to other medical tourism destinations.

Healthbase, a Boston-based medical travel facilitator that connects Americans and Canadians to affordable and easily accessible health care services is also helping Mexicans get affordable and timely surgeries overseas. 53-year old Miguel de la Peña is one such patient from Mexico who had his Birmingham hip resurfacing surgery (BHR) in India, facilitated by Healthbase.

Mexico is a hot medical tourism destination itself for a variety of health care and dental care services. However, there are a few other departments, specifically hip resurfacing, where it is still catching up.

"Birmingham hip resurfacing surgery is a relatively new procedure in Mexico and so is not easily available in the country," says Saroja Mohanasundaram, CEO of Healthbase.

Even in the United States, the hip resurfacing procedure, which is a more bone-conserving procedure than total hip replacement, was approved by the FDA only in May 2006.

According to Saroja, "Most of our customers from the US, Canada and Mexico seeking Birmingham hip resurfacing prefer to go to countries in Asia and Europe like India, Thailand, Belgium and so on because the surgeons at our partner hospitals in those countries are much more experienced than their American, Canadian or Mexican counterparts."

Hip resurfacing, which is recommended for the younger active patients, is a technology that replaces the worn surfaces of the hip joint with caps of high carbide cobalt chrome. It differs from the conventional hip replacement in that it removes only the unhealthy bone and preserves the normal hip bone whereas the conventional total hip replacement procedure (THR) sacrifices a large quantity of normal bone.

For Miguel de la Peña, it meant being able to walk again.

Attesting to the top quality of care he received in India, Miguel says, "My surgery went very smoothly. Dr. Vijay Bose is a fantastically nice person, very knowledgeable and experienced. All the personnel at the Apollo Specialty hospital in Chennai - beginning with housekeeping and going through nurses, waiters, administrative personnel, doctors, healthcare technicians, etc. - were surprisingly professional, kind and lovely people."

Experience comes with practice. BHR being a relatively new procedure in North America, there are not many orthopedic surgeons there who are well-experienced in this surgery. In contrast - "Many surgeons on our provider network, for example, have performed more than a thousand such surgeries each," says Saroja.

Thanking Healthbase for all their efforts, Miguel adds, "I want to give a very special recognition and sincere thanks to Healthbase, since without all their efforts, hard work, attention, patience and kindness I would probably have not decided to have my surgery done in India. Thanks for removing all my concerns and leading me throughout the whole process."

The top quality of care along with the substantial price differential is drawing thousands to seek care abroad for orthopedic, cardiac, bariatric, dental, laparoscopic, cosmetic and other procedures through Healthbase.


About Healthbase Online Inc:
Healthbase, an award-winning Boston-based medical tourism and dental tourism facilitator, is a one-stop source for global medical and dental choices, connecting patients to leading hospitals around the world, through a secure, easy to use and information-rich award-winning web portal. Healthbase offers over 200 medical, dental, cosmetic and surgical procedures and helps patients seek top quality healthcare in various categories such as orthopedic, spinal, cardiac, bariatric, dental, laparoscopic, cosmetic, etc. Healthbase’s partner healthcare facilities are located in India, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, Turkey, Belgium, Hungary, Costa Rica, Panama and Mexico, and are expanding to the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Argentina, Brazil, El Salvador and Guatemala. To ensure that patients receive the best care possible, Healthbase works mainly with hospitals that have international accreditations like JCI, JCAHO and ISO.

Healthbase caters to the needs of individual consumers, self-insured businesses, insurance carriers and third party administrators seeking affordable medical travel and dental travel options. To learn more, call 1-888-691-4584, email info.hb@healthbase.com or visit http://www.healthbase.com.

Contact:
Mumtaz Pachisa
Healthbase Media Relations
Healthbase
Healthcare Beyond Boundariesâ,,¢

Newton, MA 02466, USA
Phone: 1-888-MY1-HLTH
Phone: 1-888-691-4584 (Toll Free)
Phone:  (International)
Fax:
Email: media.hb@healthbase.com
Website: http://www.healthbase.com

http://www.prlog.org/10084293-healthbase-helps-mexican-get-birmingham-hip-resurfacing-surgery-in-india.html

[Shwaz]

I don't see how medical tourism is call for government reform or revolution. Walmart outsources goods manufacturing to China... should we expect the government to nationalize good's manufacturing?

How many times have we called customer service and spoken to someone in India? Should we revolutionize the customer service industry?

I believe medical tourism is a great example of "outside the box" solutions inspired by free market- profit driven enterprise.

If I could switch from BCBS to say a private insurance co from say the U.K that offered paid travel abroad,  medical treatment from a top rate facility and the option to recover in accommodations up to par with any 5 star resort. You better believe I would switch.

[Sigma]

Walmart also provides a lot of their drugs for under $4.  No government program can do that.

[FayeforCure]

Walmart also provides a lot of their drugs for under $4.  No government program can do that.

Ah, the big dog throws us a bone so we should shut up.

Don't you see this is just a gimmick to placate the masses?

[BridgeTroll]

Clearly the Birmingham hip resurfacing procedure is not performed by many of the uni care systems you tout.  The canadians are also flocking to India...

Additionally... this is EXACTLY the type of innovation we would lose upon moving to the uni care system.  This is a profit driven procedure developed by people seeking to make... A PROFIT!  They are not evil... they are not profit mongers... they are innovators who entice people to invest capitol with the possibility for profit.

Is this a great country or what?

http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/mda/docs/p040033.html

Birmingham Hip Resurfacing (BHR) System - P040033
This is a brief overview of information related to FDA's approval to market this product. See the links below to the Summary of Safety and Effectiveness and product labeling for more complete information on this product, its indications for use, and the basis for FDA's approval.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Product Name: Birmingham Hip Resurfacing (BHR) System
Manufacturer: Smith & Nephew, Inc
Address: 1450 Brooks Road, Memphis, Tennessee 38116
Approval Date: May 9, 2006
Approval Letter: http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/pdf4/p040033a.pdf

What is it? The Birmingham Hip Resurfacing (BHR) System is a metal on metal resurfacing artificial hip replacement system, surgically implanted to replace a hip joint. The BHR is called a resurfacing prosthesis because only the surface of the femoral head (ball) is removed to implant the femoral head resurfacing component.

How does it work? The BHR System has two parts: a socket in the shape of a shallow cup (acetabular component), and a cap in the form of a ball head (femoral resurfacing component).

[CrysG]

I never paid for any of my meds for 21 years, but then again I was military, darn Government run healthcare again, giving me my meds for FREE.

[Sigma]

Ah, the big dog throws us a bone so we should shut up.

Don't you see this is just a gimmick to placate the masses?

That's exactly what I was thinking when I hear the politicians speak.


So, competition in a capitalistic society = a gimmick to placate the masses.  Interesting.   Don't forget to add a mental health rider on your policy there Faye 

[FayeforCure]

Walmart also provides a lot of their drugs for under $4.  No government program can do that.

Offering $4 price or drugs of their choosing is hardly called capitalism.

If anything it's a practice to undermine healthy competition. It happens all the time where virtual monopolies underprice products to drive their competitors out of the market, so as to solidify their monopolostic position in the market.

Remember very large companies have the resources to bleed other companies out of the market because they can endure "under-pricing" a product for a longer period of time than smaller companies, which end up having to fold based on this unfair product under pricing.

[Sigma]

so, you want the Fed to control our healthcare system and that's not a monopoly? Really. Wow Faye.

[FayeforCure]

so, you want the Fed to control our healthcare system and that's not a monopoly? Really. Wow Faye.

One last time, if private insurance exists alongside a private option,.......where the heck is the monopoly?

Is private insurance AFRAID to compete with a public option?

Apparently so!

[BridgeTroll]

I do not think they are afraid of that competition... if it is in fact a fair competition.