Opinion: Medicare Could Help Assess Overseas Medical Care
To evaluate whether medical tourism can be a "modest way" to reduce costs in the U.S. health care system, the U.S. must develop a method for hospitals and surgeons to report short-term medical complications, Arnold Milstein, a physician specializing in health care improvement, Mark Smith, an internist and CEO of the California HealthCare Foundation, and Jerome Kassirer, a professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, argue in an opinion piece. They recommend that Medicare require all participating U.S. hospitals and surgeons to report pre-surgical risk factors and post-surgical complications for 30 days afterward and invite accredited foreign hospitals and physicians to participate in the system.
CHCF is the publisher of California Healthline.
- "Overseas, Under the Knife" (Milstein et al., New York Times, 6/10).