Medical Travel Today - - a US health insurer's perspective

Medical Travel Today - a US health insurer's perspective : "# Insofar as high quality care at a lower cost was available overseas covering it would advance the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care ( HPHC ) mission to 'improve the health of the people we serve.'
# As HPHC serves more large national accounts through its alliance with United Health it will deal increasingly with companies that have employees outside of the US and require solutions for these employees' needs. Skill in addressing overseas treatment would allow HPHC to serve its large corporate customers better.
# Self-insured companies are likely to see high quality/low cost overseas treatment for selected conditions as a benefit for themselves and their employees. In this way too, skill in addressing overseas treatment would allow HPHC to serve this segment of its corporate customers better.
# In the context of high deductible health insurance the EAG imagined that in the future health plans might wave the deductible for patients who had selected procedures done overseas. This would benefit the patients and the health plan.
# One EAG participant commented that "the U.S. health system is clearly broken and costs are out of control...from a competitive perspective, endorsing overseas treatment would send a strong message to U.S. providers that costs must be controlled better!" Another participant commented that covering treatment abroad is a form of "outsourcing cost containment, an area managed care has largely given up on in the US!"