| SmartCare Worldwide, a Houston-based medical travel facilitator, has launched a comprehensive medical travel benefits program that is available to all US employers. The new medical travel program will cut overall healthcare costs and provide employers a meaningful give-back benefit for their employees. The first to implement SmartCares new medical travel benefit program, offering its employees medical travel benefits through their underlying group medical plans, is a US subsidiary of a South African global employer with diversified energy and chemical operations in 38 countries. The plan is administered by SmartCare Worldwide. SmartCare’s medical travel benefit offers employees access to a comprehensive network of medical services, dental services, hospitals and top medical professionals in Costa Rica–a country recognized for its affordable, high-quality medical and dental healthcare, as well as its geographic beauty. According to Rick Huntington, a principal with SmartCare Worldwide, “medical tourists having procedures in Costa Rica enjoy significant cost savings as great as 70 percent less than US costs. These substantial savings are of central importance to employers who are under increasing pressure to contain medical insurance costs while providing health benefit options to their employees.” For participating employers and their employees, SmartCares medical travel plan provides access to high quality, affordable dental, medical and surgical services, ranging from routine to major procedures both elective and non-elective. All physicians, specialists, surgeons, dentists and related medical providers in SmartCare’s system are carefully vetted, accredited by specialty, and affiliated with Costa Rica’s leading Joint Commission International-accredited hospitals. SmartCare Worldwide has developed a structured program to simplify the medical travel experience that ensures individuals utilizing their medical travel benefit in Costa Rica receive attentive, full-time medical, dental and travel assistance. The program is fully administered by SmartCare staff. SmartCare Worldwide worked closely with the Costa Rican government, medical community and the Council for the International Promotion of Costa Rica Medicine (PROMED) to develop the infrastructure and relationships core to SmartCare’s medical tourism program. SmartCare chose Costa Rica because of the countrys commitment to excellence in medical tourism, now Costa Ricas third largest industry. During a recent interview, Huntington said, “We have built a new and extraordinary benefit program that brings something meaningful to the insurance and benefits market. Our new medical travel benefit program will provide employers of all sizes an opportunity to give back to their employees by providing a wide range of medical services that may not have been available to them previously. Perhaps this can serve as an answer to the rising costs of healthcare in the US.” “We saw a tremendous opportunity for our clients-global businesses, employers and large associations,” says Principal Shelly Coonrod, “to have the unique capability of providing their employees, retirees and members a new health benefit of exciting and real value, giving them access to world-class dental and medical treatment at great savings. “We worked hard while building this program to develop high-functioning relationships with Costa Rica’s finest hospitals, physicians, dentists, surgeons and specialists. We’ve solidified those relationships and structured a total, scalable system for medical travel and medical tourists. SmartCare can deliver this system turnkey to an employer and will administer the program in its entirety with minimum impact on the employers HR department. I feel we’ve succeeded in bringing a complete medical tourism option to the market. “The icing, of course, is that Costa Rica is a beautiful destination to visit. It is ecologically one of the most refreshing places on the planet-a peaceful country with solid ties to the US and only a three-hour flight from Houston Intercontinental Airport.” |
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