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In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

globalpost.com

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Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#81

Post by skylan_q »

curiousfiddler wrote: post #64

I'd like to take a shot at answering this: why is a low cost medical treatment effective in India? 1. For the most part, medical education is good in India. In the better hospitals you will find that doctors are generally very smart and knowledgeable. They also happen to be very practical when suggesting treatments and do consider the treatment cost as a factor when suggesting options. 2. The cost of living in India…

I'm going to guess it's because people in India are allowed to practice medicine and produce equipment. If I were to start practicing medicine and producing equipment up here in Canada I'd be arrested in a heartbeat. (Unless I went through all the hoops, and I again have a hunch there's many more here than in India)

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#82

Post by rubikscube »

There's some low cost alternatives in the USA too for other types of surgery.

http://www.surgerycenterok.com/

They even have the integrity to list prices publicly.

It's because they are brave doctors working outside of the government healthcare racket.

http://www.surgerycenterok.com/pricing.php

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#83

Post by jetru »

OGinparadise wrote: post #62
[deleted] wrote: post #47

[deleted]

You assume that the situation was ideal before these guys came in to "give people hospital infections." Also you have to realize that in many third world countries you have to bribe doctors more than $800 for the "free care" and still have WWII style hospitals. My point is that maybe the Mayo Clinic offers better care...if you happened to have $150,000 under your mattress, but most people don't. So we have to find th…

Well, that is highly contestable. $150k is not a big deal for an extremely small fraction of people(Also, you don't bribe people in the hospitals mentioned in the article.

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#84

Post by OGinparadise »

jetru wrote: post #83
OGinparadise wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You assume that the situation was ideal before these guys came in to "give people hospital infections." Also you have to realize that in many third world countries you have to bribe doctors more than $800 for the "free care" and still have WWII style hospitals. My point is that maybe the Mayo Clinic offers better care...if you happened to have $150,000 under your mattress, but most people don't. So we have to find th…

Well, that is highly contestable. $150k is not a big deal for an extremely small fraction of people( Also, you don't bribe people in the hospitals mentioned in the article.

>> And with almost similar success rates, I find it hard to believe why anyone would pay that much money for very little more. The returns diminish really quickly.

The diminishing returns are irrelevant when your life is on the line and you risk losing your life. You just don't want to be that one

>> Also, you don't bribe people in the hospitals mentioned in the article.

Please re-read my comment. I was talking about corruption in state hospitals.

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#85

Post by curiousfiddler »

skylan_q wrote: post #81
curiousfiddler wrote: post #64

I'd like to take a shot at answering this: why is a low cost medical treatment effective in India? 1. For the most part, medical education is good in India. In the better hospitals you will find that doctors are generally very smart and knowledgeable. They also happen to be very practical when suggesting treatments and do consider the treatment cost as a factor when suggesting options. 2. The cost of living in India…

I'm going to guess it's because people in India are allowed to practice medicine and produce equipment. If I were to start practicing medicine and producing equipment up here in Canada I'd be arrested in a heartbeat. (Unless I went through all the hoops, and I again have a hunch there's many more here than in India)

Well yes they are, but it is regulated (in terms of educational qualification etc). What I was trying to get at, is developing and underdeveloped countries face a lot of problems. To produce worthy result in such circumstances is something definitely worth cheering IMO.

There are so many deprived/underdeveloped/developing societies in the world which are similar to India in terms of the resources that they have access to, yet somehow the aspirations of people are not channelized and they end up doing things which are awful (e.g. terrorism). I feel India could be used as a positive example in such cases.

There are a lot of inspiring stories of people who perform amazingly well, despite access to very little resources, just because they have a direction in life and an aspiration that is meaningful. I have been inspired by several such stories in my life, which will find absolutely no mention in any western or even local media.

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#86

Post by mh- »

mjfern wrote: post #79
atdrummond wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who audits the numbers for the hospital? Is it all self-reported?

Who audits the numbers at U.S. hospitals?

good question; the US Department of Health & Human Services.

you can browse their site for more information about their mission and mandate, but here are some starting points:

http://www.hhs.gov/about/

http://www.hhs.gov/about/orgchart/

http://www.hhs.gov/regulations/

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#87

Post by mh- »

curiousfiddler wrote: post #64

I'd like to take a shot at answering this: why is a low cost medical treatment effective in India? 1. For the most part, medical education is good in India. In the better hospitals you will find that doctors are generally very smart and knowledgeable. They also happen to be very practical when suggesting treatments and do consider the treatment cost as a factor when suggesting options. 2. The cost of living in India…

just a heads up, you can italicize on HN by wrapping word(s) with asterisks like:

    India *is not* a [..]
sorry to take away from thread; insightful comment.

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#88

Post by rorrr2 »

healthenclave wrote: post #18
quentusrex wrote: post #4

Are they releasing any patient follow up statistics? It'd be interesting to compare their post-op complication stats to some of the 'overpriced' facilities.

Looks like you have edited your comment since you first made it. The success rates are high and on par with western counter parts. Also this is a private hospital , I think you haven't visited a good private hospital in a developing country. Many have US/Uk trained docs and quality of service and care on par with that of developed countries.

Source?

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#89

Post by curiousfiddler »

mh- wrote: post #87
curiousfiddler wrote: post #64

I'd like to take a shot at answering this: why is a low cost medical treatment effective in India? 1. For the most part, medical education is good in India. In the better hospitals you will find that doctors are generally very smart and knowledgeable. They also happen to be very practical when suggesting treatments and do consider the treatment cost as a factor when suggesting options. 2. The cost of living in India…

just a heads up, you can italicize on HN by wrapping word(s) with asterisks like: India *is not* a [..] sorry to take away from thread; insightful comment.

Thanks, will use that in future. Looking back at my comment, I don't seem to like the double quotes either.
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