Mr. Ariza is the Director of International Marketing at BlueCross BlueShield of Florida which is one of the biggest Health Insurance Companies in USA. He is currently working in the Strategy and Insight group, as Director of Market Strategy and Innovation, and is in charge of long-range strategic forecasting and market planning, also he manages the Innovation team for developing new solutions for both the sustaining and disruptive spaces.
Mr Naresh Jadeja: What is Blue Cross Blue Shield's strategy regarding Medical Travel ? What opportunities you would like to explore ?
Carlos : At Blue Cross Blue Shield we are looking at the opportunities for both inbound and outbound medical tourism. Also we are observing other providers and trying to figure out and understand how a business can be formulated and how better services can be delivered. At Blue Cross Blue Shield we are looking at what benefits do these providers see in terms of building a business around medical tourism or healthcare travel, considering the fact that we have initiated with the process and also are keenly interested to be a part of this growing market.
Mr. Naresh Jadeja : Being an insurance company how would you justify the necessity of medical tourism and how will you get involved in this market?
Carlos : I think, from a US insurer's perspective and from the employer's perspective, BCBS is definitely interested in reducing the healthcare cost so as to get better outcome overseas which is always affective. Also this is more of a matter of creating awareness and evolving services around it which makes it convenient and easier for the customers/patients at the end.
But given the current scenario there is another bigger market of people travelling for equal care without necessarily having insurance or being connected to an employer, this uninsured individual are self paid patients and forms a huge market which is growing in both directions in and out of United States.
Considering this cases that are relatively routine it is understood that they would go overseas, but there are also people from overseas who come to US for health care because they can't get new experimental or specialized treatment in their home countries. In either case thats an opportunity for Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Mr. Naresh Jadeja : With your view point towards the medical tourism industry, what according to you could be possible barriers for US patients while travelling abroad for surgery?
Carlos : One of the most obvious and biggest barriers would be cultural, for the level of comfort that people going abroad would have, a fear of never being visited before, doubts about its quality assurance or inability of speaking the local language.
But there is an opportunity, if we concentrate on people that are here in the US but are internationally experienced, be it second generations or children of immigrants should travel for health care as they are comfortable going to their home countries and could better understand and compare quality more precisely. You have those kind of pilot markets and you can grow those.
Also there isn't enough work done in health insurance benefits and how health benefits get structured to incentivize people who would like to consider medical tourism. For example if I go overseas for treatment, I will be going out of network and I will get hit. But some insurance companies started to offer these benefits of no deductibles and low premiums and that will definitely create growth in this industry.
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