After going overseas to outsource everything from manufacturing to customer services, the LA Times reports that a growing number of employers hit by inexorable increases in the cost of healthcare for their staff are looking into sending sick employees abroad for surgeries that in the US cost tens of thousands of dollars more.
Carl Garrett of Leicester, N.C., will fly to a state-of-the-art New Delhi hospital in September for surgeries to remove gallstones and to fix an overworn rotator cuff. His employer, Blue Ridge Paper Products Inc. of Canton, N.C., will pay for it all, including airfare for Garrett and his fiancee. The company also will give Garrett a share of the expected savings, up to $10,000, when he returns.Garrett chose to go abroad rather than have the operations locally, where he would have paid thousands of dollars in deductibles and co-pays.