Have you ever wondered what a trip to Central America might be like? On a motorcycle? For dental care?!

BridgeHealth International client Doug French tells his two-wheeled story on his blog:

“About four years ago I went to a dentist in the states with the idea that after years of either neglect or simply not having the money or insurance to keep up on my teeth, I was going to do what ever it took to get them up to where they needed to be. I was working on a very good case of periodontal disease that I didn’t even know about. Mainly due to not going to the dentist enough, getting my teeth cleaned regularly, and other bad habits like diet and smoking.The amount of money just for a crown, let alone a root canal or an implant, as most people know in the states is very expensive. To look at having to get several, well, it seemed not even worth looking at for where I was at during that time in my life.

So I started my journey back to trying to recover my teeth and have a healthy mouth once again.”

Read Doug’s entire post from the back of his Vulcan 750 at: http://freedomthrumovement.blogspot.com/2008/12/dentista.html

Readers of this blog get first crack at the best seats for BridgeHealth International Inc.’s first-ever medical tourism “Webinar” on Friday, May 30 at 11 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time.

The free online event will feature Stephanie Sulger, RN. MS, VP of BridgeHealth’s Consumer Division; and Will Garin, VP of marketing for the Denver-based company. The one-hour presentation is open to the first 125 people to register online:

Webinar Online Registration Link

No special software or hardware is required to view and participate in the Webinar. The presentation is recommended for “anyone who has ever wondered what medical tourism is really like,” Garin said. “It gives people a place to start and a place to get their questions answered.”

Sulger, a pioneer in the medical travel and tourism industry, is frequently called upon to assess health and safety factors at medical destinations and is often quoted in media such as The New York Times and Good Housekeeping magazine, as well as appearing on ABC television speaking about issues facing the medical travel industry. In her career, she has assisted more than 3,000 clients in obtaining care in overseas facilities, including for orthopedics, neurosurgery, general surgery, cosmetic surgery, GYN, urology and stem cell therapy.

BridgeHealth is the sponsor of this blog. You can expect to see the moderator at the webinar, providing there’s an extra seat …

Medical travel and tourism continues to be poked and prodded in the U.S. media and, increasingly, the news is catching up with the most significant trend in the nascent industy.

And that is, that patients can go outside of the United States for high quality medical care at far lower costs than at home is becoming part of how businesses, insurers and consumers — together — are fighting to contain costs for needed healthcare. The May issue of Fast Company covers the topic and the issues it raises, in considerable depth, in an article headlined, simply, Medical Leave. The article is a snapshot of U.S. healthcare at a crossroads:

“The phrase “medical tourism” was once used to describe early retirees jetting in to Bangkok or Bangalore to have a little work done before recuperating on the beach. That image doesn’t jibe with the numbers today. As many as half a million Americans streamed abroad last year in search of affordable alternatives for hip replacements or prostate surgery. And they went not for the postsurgical tanning but for the savings: up to 90% off the going rates in the United States. They went because 47 million Americans lack insurance and can’t pay for surgery to fix a bad back or clogged arteries. Or because they have insurance but can’t begin to pay the soaring deductibles a major surgery entails. They’re fleeing a system that is by far the most expensive in the world and growing more so by the hour, with diminishing returns in quality of care.”

The FastCompany.com article makes it clear — U.S. businesses and insurers are integrating medical travel into healthcare offerings at whatever pace that consumers will accept — and as consumers learn more about healthcare outside the U.S., they accept or even embrace it.

That has also been the experience of Stephanie Sulger, BridgeHealth International vice president, who has been helping patients get the care they need at a cost they can afford for the past six years.

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Browse the web and you’ll find a lot of medical tourism companies. It can be difficult to a casual observer to judge their credibility — it’s a truism that “anyone can have a web site.” One of the ways you can tell if a company is “real” is whether they behave like one in ways besides having a web site. The media release, below, gives BridgeHealth’s bonafides.

– the moderator

DENVER — With more Americans reaching beyond domestic borders to the international community for more affordable dental and medical care, BridgeHealth International, Inc. (BHI) today announced that its worldwide health care network model received a seven-figure seed round investment led by the NY-based private equity firm Jovian Holdings. Additional participation comes from Denver-based Tivis Capital, a private equity firm specializing in healthcare services and medical device companies, which will also provide a senior management team to lead BHI’s medical tourism operations.

“With strong financial backing and a seasoned executive team that has extensive experience in health care operations, BHI emerges as the industry leader in the burgeoning market niche known as medical tourism,” said Victor Lazzaro, Jr., CEO of BridgeHealth International and managing director of Tivis Capital. (photo, right)

Lazzaro has 20 years of senior management experience in the health and managed care fields and formed International Health Technology Company (IHT), a consulting firm, which has developed and managed medical clinics and hospitals in China. He serves as president and CEO of Signum US Healthcare, developing CyberKnife[R]-focused surgery clinics in China. Previously, Lazzaro was president and CEO of United Healthcare Corporation - Mountain States (UHC) and was regional vice president of Health Plan Operations, Gulf South for Prudential Insurance Company of America.

“We are assembling a wide selection of dentists, physicians and accredited hospitals, and are actively expanding the network to serve the needs of employers, insurers, benefit plan payers, third party administrators and consumers,” continued Lazzaro.

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