GIACC meet focuses on medical tourism
Medical tourism was the focus of the Georgia Indo-American Chamber of Commerce’s networking event on Tuesday, July 22. Braving a thunderstorm and some bad traffic, 70 guests and members of the GIACC gathered at the informal “Samosa and Chai” session at the Hilton Garden Inn in Duluth, sponsored by Omedtra, LLC. Omedtra, a Duluth-based company, helps patients receive high-quality medical care overseas, in countries like India and Thailand.
Among those who spoke at the event were Narsi Narasimhan, GIACC President, Dr. Bharat Shah, one of the principals of Omedtra, and Dr. Rakesh Thapliyal, Omedtra founder and CEO.
Dr. Thapliyal said the patients his company could help typically included those looking for medical procedures such as cosmetic dentistry and cosmetic surgery that were not covered by their insurance plans, patients who were on a waiting list to undergo a treatment, those seeking medical procedures not available in this country, or those who were uninsured or under-insured. He said the cost of treatment would vary depending on the choice of hospital and the choice of country, but overall, the cost would be about 70 to 80 percent less than what the treatment could cost in the U.S.
“Our partner hospitals use state of the art equipment and procedures that are less invasive,” said Dr. Thapliyal.
He said he would welcome an opportunity to discuss the concept of medical tourism and Omedtra's activities, and urged GIACC members to contact him for information about the initiative.
Narasimhan also introduced Harriet Hoskyns-Abrahall, Senior Accounts Manager from Public Broadcasting Atlanta, who spoke about an upcoming landmark six-part series for PBS and the BBC to be aired early 2009. She said she would work with the GIACC to promote the programming of the series.
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