Why PlanetHospital

While many claim to be the first company to be in the medical tourism industry, PlanetHospital started in 2002.  Our membership with the Better Business Bureau bears this out. We have been a Better Business Bureau Member since 2002, with zero unresolved complaints since 2002, and an A rating since 2002. But there are even better reasons to consider us.

History

PlanetHospital started quite by accident in 2002, when our original founder, Ms Valerie Capeloto and her fiancée were visiting Bangkok Thailand and she became sick with her pre-existing condition known as Lupus.

Valerie was too afraid to go to what she perceived would be a 3rd world hospital. However, within moments of arriving, she was met by an Australian educated doctor who took complete control of her situation and gave her better care than what she was used to in hospitals she had been to in California.  She stayed at the hospital for three days and was given her own private nurse who was constantly at her beck and call 24 hours a day. A personal chef came by to discuss her daily meal options and brought fabulously prepared meals (and not just Thai food but delicious sodium reduced pastas and steaks). She was discharged two days later with a bill for only $411USD!!

Soon, she was referring other friends and people in her lupus support group and other communities to this hospital, and her fiancée, Rudy Rupak Acharya, helped her get acquainted with other doctors around the world as well (even though he did not believe at the time that Americans and Brits would be interested in this idea). By June 2005, the couple had referred over 77 patients to hospitals throughout the world. The company PlanetHospital officially began its website in August of 2005 and has developed a huge fan base of clients. In October 2005, Valerie felt too overwhelmed to run this business on her own and Rudy took over with Valerie's original vision in mind but expanding the concept further to include having doctors and nurses communicate with our clients and expand to include employers.

Although Valerie is no longer an owner of PlanetHospital, she is starting to develop the PlanetHospital Foundation, a non-profit that is dedicated to helping children who cannot afford medical care that they need and facilitating care at one of the several hospitals in PlanetHospital's network for no charge. Valerie believes that not only will they get the care they need but they also get to experience a new culture.

Strength In Numbers

PlanetHospital has helped thousands of people with their medical tourism needs. Hospitals and doctors throughout the globe appreciate our attention and focus on client safety. With that in mind, picture yourself in a confrontational or complicated situation. If you were a PlanetHospital client, chances are we can persuade the hospital and doctors just how many patients we have brought to their hospital and they be more inclined to resolve a matter with you fairly rather than lose their relationship with us. If you booked the procedure yourself or others, would you have this leverage?

Trusted Experience

PlanetHospital began in 2002, back when the concept of traveling to another country for medical care was, well, foreign. When one typed the words medical tourism, they would find PlanetHospital (and a rather dreadful website) and some outfit in Iran (that was some competition). While pioneers get the arrows (and we have the scars to prove it) being an early starter had its advantages. We made a lot of our mistakes early while many are still trying to figure things out. Today, when you type in the words "medical tourism" several pages of results will come up (because it is such a "hot" space to be in), but we find it reckless and irresponsible to enter this business without any solid understanding of the fundamentals. After all, this is your health we are talking about and neither you nor PlanetHosital can afford to be reckless. If you don't wish to use our services, we understand. We would prefer that you did it yourself rather than with a company that is careless and incompetent. Compare their experience to ours. In fact let us recommend some colleagues we feel comfortable referring you to: Medretreat, WorldMedAssist, Bridgehealth, Companion.  Let them know PlanetHospital sent you.  

Doctors, not Salespeople

Concierge Services and Dedicated Travel Desk

One of the main values of our service is our in country support (the concierge). When you book your trip with PlanetHospital you not only receive excellent customer service and support while you are home, but you have a real, live, person who lives near the hospital you are going to and is there to help you during your stay. Some of the duties of the concierge are as follows:

• Contact client prior to arrival to discuss the country they are visiting
• Arrange pick up from airport (and special transport if required)
• Meet client at the hospitals, take care of client's companion
• Intervene in the event of any dispute with hospital
• Contact family members in case of emergency and arrange their transport
• Arrange for aftercare while in country
• Arrange to drop off at airport
• Liaise between the countries and PlanetHospital
• Shopping and site-seeing arrangements can be made as needed for additional fees.
• Frequent visits to the hospital to check up on you and your companion
• Provide you with a cell phone for your use while you are in a foreign country

Our concierge service is optional but highly recommended.  Rates start at $75/day for the first 4 days and then $60/day thereafter (please note that not all destinations have a concierge service).

In addition to the concierge service, we also have an in-house travel expert who will take care of your flights and hotel bookings, prepare your itineraries and communicate special needs for your flight.  This person will also re-route you in case you need to stay longer.  The power and importance of the travel desk was put to the test during the Mumbai Massacre and the Bangkok Airport shut down.  Our concierge was able to re-route our clients through different cities and bring our clients home safely.

We take every step possible to ensure that something does NOT go wrong during your stay. If you booked your airfare through PlanetHospital, we are able to change the ticket without any penalties or change fees.

Media (CNN, Nightline, Time Magazine, Fox and all major networks)

PlanetHospital has had the most amount of publicity and exposure than any other medical tourism company - from CNN to Time Magazine to Nightline, to Good Housekeping, and more. Visit our PRESS section and learn more. With media comes greater scrutiny and so we strive to maintain our integrity and professionalism rather than let it turn to hubris.

Please check out our Press Section to see more.

Experience with Insurance and Employers

Meet Timmi Ryerson, a former patient who had her procedure paid for through her Blue Crossi insurance.  Timmi now works with PlanetHospital to help get procedures partially reimbursed by insurers. She has been very successful at this.  In addition to assisting individuals with their insurance needs, PlanetHospital has been working with several self funded employers and insurance groups as well.  

Best Of Both Worlds Network® 

For those of you who are unsure about the foreign doctor or the overseas facility, why not travel with a US Surgeon to one of our select destinations and have the surgery performed by that US surgeon.  And then once you are home you can get follow up care from the same surgeon.  While the concept of flying with your doctor to get surgey seems like something only the jet set would do, you will be surprised at how affordable this can be.  Inquire about this program today.  Surgeons who want to joint the Best of Both Worlds please go to the JOIN US section and read more.  

State of the Art Technology

Using the PlanetHospital website to book your surgery is kind of like using EXPEDIA or ORBITZ.  We make it that simple but what you do not see is the complexity of what happens in the background.  Our systems are fully HIPAA compliant and are designed to protect your privacy.  The goal of this technology however is to provide the absolute best customer service possible.  Become a client and you will experience it for yourself.  Become one of the several hundreds who do not call themselves clients -- they call themselves FANS.

 CATA Insurance

 In medical tourism, there are four essential risks:  

• Complication Rik (you spend more time in the OR and ICU than you had paid for)
• Accidental Death an Dismemberment (caused by negligence or simple human error)]
• Travel (everything from lost bags, canceled flights, road accidents while in a foreign country, and more.
• Aftercare (what if something goes wrong after surgery, then what?

CATA is a PlanetHospital designed product that protects the US Medical Tourist from the above risks and you do not have to be a PlanetHosptial client to have this product (please note that we are NOT an insurance broker,. all insurance sales are done by our various affiliates).

Diaspora

PlanetHospital is the first medical tourism company to launch its own insurance product - DIASPORA. Under Diaspora, a foreigner will receive accident and emergency care in the US and for everything else, the policy will pay for the procedure at a hospitla in one of our network hospitals.  So for example. if someone from the Philippines bought DIASPORA and they realize they will need hip surgery, the person would have to fly to the Philippines or any country in our network at their expense (this is the deductible) but once there, they can go to any of the state of the art hospitals in our network.  DIASPORA's launch was delayed due to the demise of one of our insuranc partners but we are motivated to launch it.  We feel it is an important part of healthcare reforn.

Thought Leader

Rudy Rupak, our co-founder has become the industry thought leader in Medical Tourism. From speaking at the house of representatives in West Virginia and Colorado to presenting a paper to the Senate committee on aging, to being invited as a thought leader at the World Health Executive Forum (the Davos of healthcare), and speaking at several engagements such as ABQAURP and AHIP and more. Rudy has been a visionary that most employers, insurance companies, and government agencies which people consult (free of charge by the way) to understand which way the industry is going. Rudy's concepts such as Best Of Both Worlds and Diaspora are examples of his innovations which are a testament to his leadership role in the industry of medical tourism.