Gabriel Senior Launches Travel for Care
As Featured in the McKinsey Alumni Portal
Friday, September 18, 2009
Gabriel Senior (CAR 03-04) has launched a medical travel facilitator firm, Travel for Care.
Medical travel is the booming trend that comes as a logical answer to having a 300% price differential between equally trained doctors and accredited facilities just a short trip apart. Until now, this has been a slowly growing industry that sees less than 50,000 Americans looking mostly for plastic and weight loss surgery in parts of Asia or in inexpensive clinics in Tijuana, Mexico.
Travel For Care is a medical travel facilitator (or promotion agency) based in Monterrey, México, which markets a first-rate doctor and dentist network to American and Canadian individuals looking for affordable elective procedures (plastic, cosmetic-dental, vision and weight loss surgeries) and non-elective procedures (cardio, orthopedics, urology, cancer, general surgery). It provides information, communication, and logistical services, along with great prices in hotels and transportation in order to offer the travelling patient everything it needs to get healthcare from top, US-trained doctors, in internationally accredited hospitals and at a total cost between 30% and 75% less than in the US.
Initial outreach to potential patients is done through web campaigns targeting individuals looking for elective procedures, the next step has been addressing the uninsured, and as soon as the concept is proven, corporate clients will be next.
These clients will be made up of Employers, Insurers, Charities, and Hospitals. Employers that cover the healthcare spending of their employees are set to benefit from this trend by sharing the savings of medical travel in voluntary schemes. Insurers could create low cost products that cover emergency procedures in the US, but which cover non-emergency procedures in a network abroad. Charities that help the poor and the uninsured could do three times more good with us. Hospitals could refer some non-emergency cases of uninsured citizens to us instead of offering credit and then writing off huge amounts.
Senior, a former McKinsey & Company consultant, appreciates any and all feedback that readers and fellow alumni can provide.
