Going Overseas for Affordable Health Care | Newsweek Travel

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Posted By: aschuster35 @ 05/04/2009 12:09:50 AM

Buyer beware. Unlike the example described in the article, my daughter???s experience with Planet Hospital was not a positive one. She and her husband worked with Sarine Garabedian (their contact at Planet Hospital) on an IVF/Surrogacy procedure in Panama. Looking back on the entire process, they came to the conclusion that Planet Hospital was disorganized and incompetent. After months of delays, changes, miscommunication, promises, and close to $20,000 in expenses, the result of their medical procedure was a complete failure. While they were aware of the probability of failure, the entire process left them, because of the lack of transparency, with an uncomfortable level of suspicion that they did not get the services originally promised and that the Clinic in Panama did not have the necessary experience and success rates in the IVF/surrogacy procedure. Three months have past since they received an e-mail (bad news was always transmitted via e-mails) informing them of the IVF failure and they are still waiting for the promised feedback from the fertility clinic in Panama (Centro de Reproducción Punta Pacífica, Dr. Mario Vega, Dr. Sindy Rojas) on what went wrong.
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  Posted By: planethospital @ 07/28/2009 12:43:48 PM
  
  Hello. I am the founder and president of PlanetHospital and I am deeply concerned by your comments particular since I cannot find anyone describing your daughter's profile in our system. We have had a rogue employee that we dismissed recently and we are discovering several improper acts by her, nevertheless the buck stops with me and I want to rectify any bad situations that you and your family have faced. Thank you

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Posted By: sethvr @ 05/04/2009 11:51:06 AM

Colombia is quickly becoming a medical tourism hub, especially for cosmetic and plastic surgery. Very qualified doctors and physicians, along with strict medical quality procedures, not only make it a safe experience, it is also very affordable as the exchange rate from Dollars to Pesos is unparalleled. I am a second generation Colombian living in New York and had a functional surgery for my nose done at www.naturalbelle.com . I couldn't have been more satisified with the results. Overall, I saved over 2000USD on my procedure. This place and others like it are highly recommended.

Regards,

Seth
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  Posted By: JosefWoodman @ 05/04/2009 6:00:35 PM
  
  Dear Sethvr: I'm Josef Woodman, author of Patients Beyond Borders (a consumer guide to medical tourism). I would not normally contact you in this manner, but I know of no other way. Our editors are looking into Columbia as a medical travel destination, and would be very interested in speaking further with you. If you are willing, we would of course ensure your privacy. You can reach me at jwoodman@healthtraveler.net

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Posted By: lideng @ 05/04/2009 3:28:46 PM

Affordable surgeries done in other countries does not necessarily equal to low or bad quality procedures. Some of the best hospitals can be found abroad. WorldMed Assist only partners with hospitals after multi-day, on-site screening. Many of the top surgeons in their partner network were trained in the U.S., and most hospitals have affiliations with renowned US medical centers such as Johns Hopkins and Harvard Medical. Hospitals are squeaky clean, and their patients have rated their overseas accommodations as five star. Visit www.worldmedassist.com to learn more about Medical Tourism.