Bomaid Partners With Indian Hospitals
Gaone Marumoloa | Monday February 20, 2017 15:28
Speaking at a ceremony to foster the agreement, head of operations at Bomaid, Dr Lorato Mangadi said the partnership is a great opportunity to both the Bomaid and the Apollo Hospitals.
She said they are always mindful of rising healthcare costs and the challenge of facilitating access to high quality health care for their members. She said their estimates show that it costs 30% less on average to send a patient to India than its costs to take them to a South African facility.
“The Bomaid/Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals agreement is part of an ongoing strategy to prudently manage the fund without compromising the members’ access to high quality health care services,” she said.
According to Mangadi, the partnership allows their members to travel to India for high value medical procedures such as organ transplants, major cardiac surgeries, and joint replacement, spine surgeries and cancer treatments.
Manager (International Business) at Apollo Hospitals, Dr Vineet Arora said their facilities are one of the best hospitals in India and that they have separate agreement with the Government of Botswana through the Ministry of Health.
He said since the partnership started in October last year, they have carried out a total of 16 operations on Bomaid members with the procedures ranging from heart, liver and kidney transplant as well as bone marrow operations.
Mongadi said only members who are eligible and are medically fit for travel at the recommendation of their local doctors will be offered an option to be treated in India as part of this agreement. She said Bomaid will cover medical, travel and accommodation costs for these members.
“This partnership is cost effective to the fund and will in addition offer our members an opportunity to higher quality treatments and relieve them the burden of excessive out of pocket expenses which are usually associated with these costly procedures,” she said.