Reverse Sticker Shock

I have of course heard of the rise in medical tourism, wherein people who are seeking medical treatment travel outside of their home country to recieve said treatment, most often because of the high cost within the home country. India is a very popular destination of medical tourists, and after our experience yesterday, I understand why.



Eric had been complaining for a day or so that his little finger on his right hand was hurting him. It was a bit swollen and a bit red so we applied a topical antibiotic to the cut and covered it with a Band-Aid. This continued until yesterday around noon when he called from work and asked if my friend Mamta, a M.D., might be able to look at it. I thought that he was being a little bit of a drama queen since it looked okay when we left for work just a couple of hours earlier, but I thought that Mamta and I would humor him. When we met up, it was obvious that something was really wrong because his finger had swollen to a huge and disgusting size and looked like a sausage about to pop its casing. We decided that we should go immediately to the hospital to get this looked at because it was so gross and Eric was in alot of pain. We set of to the nicest looking hospital that we could think of since none of us had ever really been in a hospital in Bangalore (Mamta has only been in Bangalore for 10 months or so). We knew that this hospital would be much more expensive than the typical hospital, but we didn't want to mess around just trying to save a few bucks. Little did we know that we had nothing to worry about.



When we arrived at the hospital we promptly filled out a brief registration form; name, birthdate, address, the typical stuff. It was so nice to not have to sit for forever filling out all of the insurance paperwork and all of the other crap that has to be done at US hospitals. We waited maybe five to ten minutes before we saw that surgeon who diagnosed the problem, and then waited maybe another five minutes before the procedure was started (they numbed his finger with a local anestetic and then made an incision to drain the fluid, and dressed it). He was done in about another ten minutes. We then took the prescriptions and the paperwork to the cashier to pay. I was hoping that it would be under 8000 rupees, which is about $200. I am not sure what the equivalent procedure would cost in the US, but when I dislocated my shoulder I am positive that we ended up paying at least a couple hundred bucks, and that was in addition to the pleasure of having been made to sit in a freezing ER for two hours with a shoulder out of socket before actually receiving any treatment. I was absolutely shocked when the total cost was 1772 Rs ($43.59). This price INCLUDES the cost of the prescriptions (a one week course of antibiotics and three days worth of pain killers). And also remember, NO INSURANCE. That is the actual cost, no strings attached. My god, my jaw just about hit the floor. I am still in a state of shock. And the other factor that makes the cost even more shocking is that the hospital that we were at is actually NICER than any hospital that I have ever been to in the US, so imagine what the cost would have been at a more typical Indian hospital; probably $30 tops. I thought that I would just include that price breakdown that was included on our bill for those that are interested.



Registration Fee-100 Rs ($2.46)


Antibiotic-806.74 Rs ($19.84)


Pain Killer-71.65 Rs ($1.76)


Surgical Blade-3.26 Rs ($0.08)


10CC Syringe-7 Rs ($0.17)


Sterile Gloves-33 Rs ($0.81)


Consultation Charge-250 Rs ($6.15)


Doctor Charges-500 Rs ($12.30)



So if any of you are needing any medical procedure and are looking for a bargain, please consider visiting us in India. We were so pleased with our experience, we are looking forward to our next injury.