Arranging medical treatment abroad demands extraordinary thought and effort. Medical tourism guidebooks tell you it should only be approached in one of two ways. You can arrange everything yourself. Or you can entrust the task to a company like us, Patients With Passports.
If you go the do-it-yourself route, you're told to be prepared to invest tremendous time and effort. On research, on emailing, on arranging ways to convert your medical records/lab results/X-rays into digital form for transmission abroad. Or on making travel arrangements -- then altering those arrangements due to some glitch. Maybe you didn't allowed enough time for getting a visa. Or you discovered you scheduled treatment when weather conditions were often worst.
We're the alternative: a medical concierge service. We make it so much easier, certainly safer and hopefully even pleasurable to receive healthcare treatment abroad.
Please read the 28-step service process we provide. Our service process streamlines a complex decision-making and planning process. It's designed like a pilot's pre-takeoff checklist. The sequence of the 28 steps insures actions take place in the order required. Execution is methodical. Nothing is overlooked.
We make traveling abroad for medical care, dental work or cosmetic surgery easier, faster, safer. And the service is free. You pay us nothing, and the cost of care is the same whether you make arrangements directly or through us. In fact, in some instances you'll actually pay less.
1. Fill in online registration form, or call us at 1-877-633-3591.
2. Initial consultation: this is an opportunity to discuss your particular situation with one of our medical or dental services client specialists. They will ask some brief questions about your current health, treatment needs, previous international travel experience, travel preferences, budget, etc. The PwP client specialist will then be able to offer preliminary advice about the sorts of options available to you.
3. Medical questionnaire: you'll be asked to complete an online medical questionnaire. We need a record of this information to properly serve and advise you.
4. PwP introductory material: if you have not done so already, you'll be encouraged to read the entire "Medical Tourism" section of the PwP website. It explains the scope of our service, and information about treatment options. It also explains how to use the PwP database to choose a service destination (country), hospital or clinic to go to for treatment, even a specific surgeon/dentist/plastic surgeon.
5. Choosing a destination: in deciding where to go for treatment, clients are generally urged to begin the process by deciding what country or region offers the best prospect of finding the care they require at a price they can afford.
6. Choosing a hospital or service provider: once a client has decided where to look, you can begin examining the hospitals, dental clinics or cosmetic surgery centers located there and listed as a PwP service network member. The PwP website lists all the healthcare providers around the world which have joined our network. These are world-class hospitals, dental clinics and cosmetic surgery clinics at which PwP is able to arrange treatment for clients.
7. Choosing a surgeon or specialist: clients are encouraged to study the information available through the PwP database about many of the surgeons, doctors, dentists and cosmetic surgeons on staff at PwP network facilities. Information is often available about the training, specialization, professional experience and accreditations of many network hospital staff surgeons, dentists and plastic surgeons. In some cases, even more detailed information is available, for example showing if a surgeon is trained to perform a particular procedure, how many times he/she has done it, and even data on patient care outcomes. Clients can use this data to identify specific hospital surgeons, dentists or cosmetic surgeons whom they want to care for them.
8. Request a price quote: once you have decide where you want to go for treatment, ask us to obtain a price quote. It's from this point forward that a major benefit of arranging care through PwP comes into play. If you directly emailed many facilities abroad, you might wait a week or two for a price quote. Network members respond to us within two business days. That difference becomes significant because of the number of emails that inevitably must be exchanged to arrange something as complex as healthcare. Even if a medical tourist succeeded in limiting the number of emails to 10, if the time taken to respond averaged a week, that would squander 2-1/2 months just waiting for replies. We average far fewer communications because we already know the drill, and get replies in two days, greatly speeding up the process.
9. Decide where to go for treatment: once you know roughly what the cost will be, and what staff member would provide treatment, you're in position to decide if you want to apply for treatment.
10. Sign medical records release form: the foreign healthcare provider will need information to determine if they can treat you, and to prepare a proper preliminary cost estimate.Providing us with a signed medical release form enables us to help gather the necessary medical records, lab results, CAT scans, etc.
11. Gather medical records: a foreign hospital will want to see your medical file, and any notes prepared by doctors who've seen you for the ailment to be treated abroad. Foreign dental clinics will want to see dental records and recent x-rays. Cosmetic surgeons will want to see photos of the body part that you want altered.
12. Transmit medical records to overseas care provider: chances are high none of the medical or dental records that your foreign surgeon or dentist wants to see are in digital form.Less than 20% of U.S. medical records are currently kept in a digital format, as an EPR or electronic patient record.We can arrange for medical or dental records to be converted into digital format, and then transmit those files to your chosen care provider abroad.
13. Preliminary decision on treatment/presentation of preliminary cost estimate: once the foreign healthcare provider has received your medical records, they will decide if they can treat you.They also will provide a detailed cost estimate. That figure forms the basis for determining the amount of money to be prepaid. Each care provider dictates its own terms. Many require the entire estimated cost of treatment be prepaid.
14. Video conference with prospective surgeon or physician: numbers of our network healthcare providers in principle offer to schedule short video conferences, enabling prospective patients to discuss their condition and treatment with the surgeon who'd perform the procedure.Each provider sets its own policies in this area.
15. Sign up for treatment: you are asked to complete a short online form, detailing the care you want arranged and two seven-day periods for scheduling treatment.
16. Complete online PwP client form: this sets out the legal terms of the service provided to you by us.
17. Complete service provider patient form: this sets out the legal terms of the service and treatment provided by the foreign healthcare provider. Each provider prepares its own form.
18. Follow countdown-to-departure checklist of things to do: once you're signed up for treatment, you will be provided with a list of things to do prior to departure. Items highlighted in red are typically mandatory: actions you are required to complete by government regulation (i.e. obtaining a travel visa), or by a travel service provider (i.e. making payments by certain dates to keep an airline reservation.) Other checklist items are provided as suggestions of things to consider doing to prepare (i.e. getting vaccinations far enough in advance of departure if any are recommended for where you'll be going.)
19. Apply for passport/visa: we provide information about how to go about applying for a passport, and to apply for a visa if one is required for wherever you're going for treatment. We do not performed these tasks for you. You must file these applications yourself.
20.Make travel arrangments/airline reservations: we rely on a commercial travel agency to make airline reservations and other travel arrangements for PwP clients. We work closely with this travel agency, to insure that your travel and medical care arrangements are coordinated, appropriate and reflect your instructions and/or preferences.
21.Choose a hotel, make a reservation: we can provide lists of hotels or other accommodation to consider at your treatment destination. Lodging reservations are made by the same travel agency, producing a consolidated travel expenses bill. That bill is to be paid separately from your medical bills.
22. Provide deposit: we will notifiy you how many days in advance of departure you are required to provide a deposit toward the cost of your healthcare, the amount required, and to whom the deposit goes. For deposits we collect on behalf of PwP network healthcare providers, the money is deposited in an escrow account at a U.S. bank. That money remains in escrow until after you arrive at your treatment destination, and visited the treatment facility for an initial consultation with your doctor, surgeon or dentist. If for any reason you decide not to proceed with treatment, that deposit will be returned to you within 10 business days. (See Our Guarantee)
23. Departure, arrival at service destination: we will arrange for you to be met upon arrival by a guide and a car, which will take you to your hotel. For a modest fee, you can hire a bilingual interpreter and driver to be at your disposal throughout you stay. An interpreter is not required for treatment purposes, as all our network healthcare providers have many staff who are fluent in English. All the key people assigned to treat PwP clients are required to speak English fluently.
24. Facility visit, consultation, confirmation: the day after arrival, you will visit the facility where treatment is to be provided, to meet with the hospital surgeon (or dentist or cosmetic surgeon) who will provide treatment. That day you are expected to confirm your intention to proceed with treatment.
25. Treatment: in most cases, treatment commences with an examination and tests which the healthcare provider deems necessary to determine your physical condition, need for medical treatment, and preferred method of treatment . The Service Provider Patient Form which you signed as Step 17 sets out the terms and conditions for treatment.In particular, it fixes terms for payments and refunds if the care provider discovers through the initial screening that treatment is not possible, additional treatment is required, another sort of treatment is required, or more extensive testing is required before a decision on treatment is possible. Throughout the treatment period, clients can contact PwP for assistance in dealing with any problems that arise.
26. Recouperation period: during the treatment planning process, you were advised how long after treatment to remain in the vicinity, both to recouperate and insure there are no immediate post-treatment complications. For virtually any sort of surgery, including cosmetic procedures, patients are encouraged to spend two weeks resting and recouperating. The economics of traveling abroad for healthcare can make this period particularly appealing to medical tourists. You can spend that time in very pleasant surroundings (a resort or fine hotel), or at surgical recovery center where 24-hour nursing care is available. The cost is often a fraction of what it would cost for similar accommodations or nursing care in the United States. And if there are post-treatment complications, typically they become evident within the first two weeks, enabling clients to return to the foreign healthcare provider's facility for necessary aftercare.
27. Return: usually after the forecast period of recouperation, your foreign surgeon or doctor will clear you to travel again. All medical care expenses should be settled before you depart, and your foreign care provider should give you with a complete record of treatment along with your itemized bill. It is important to bring all those records back home. Local doctors may need to examine those records if you need to see a physician for any reason related to the care provided abroad.
28: Aftercare: This is another key reason for arranging care through Patients With Passports. In the vast majority of cases, clients will experience no special problems associated with the treatment provided abroad. But inevitably there will be instances where a client subsequently requires treatment for the same health problem, and it may be necessary for doctors here to to speak directly to the doctors abroad who treated the client. In such cases, PwP can often prove very useful in facilitatating a rapid and appropriate response.
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