Care Abroad

Care AbroadWords (26)

Package price, facilitator, day case, DRG, graft, cycle, tariff — with roots.

A (1)

ASA grade

ASA physical status, ASA class, ASA PS classification

A six-point scale describing how well a patient is before an operation, from ASA I, healthy, to ASA VI, declared brain-dead with organs being removed for donation, with an E appended where the surgery is an emergency.

B (1)

Bundled payment

episode payment, episode-based payment, global payment

One payment covering everything a patient needs for a defined episode — the admission, the surgeon, the rehabilitation, the readmission if it happens — across every provider involved, for a fixed number of days after…

C (4)

Case rate

flat rate per case, per-case payment, global fee

One flat amount for one case, agreed in advance. A trade description puts it at its bluntest: under a case rate "providers receive a flat reimbursement rate for every patient visit, no matter what service they provide".

Circumvention travel

circumvention tourism, circumvention medical tourism, travel to evade a prohibition

Travelling to a country where a treatment is lawful in order to have it, because it is prohibited at home. The treatment is legal where it happens.

Co-payment

copay, copayment, patient contribution

A fixed sum the patient pays for a covered service while the payer pays the rest.

Cycle

IVF cycle, treatment cycle, started cycle

One round of stimulation, egg collection, fertilisation and transfer.

D (2)

Day case

day surgery, ambulatory surgery, same-day surgery

Treatment that occupies a hospital bed for part of a day and no night.

DRG

diagnosis-related group, diagnosis related group, case mix group

A bucket. Every inpatient stay is sorted at discharge into one group by diagnosis, procedures and complications, each group carries a weight, and the weight times a base rate is what the hospital is paid — the same…

F (2)

Facilitator

broker, medical travel agency, intermediary

The commercial party between a patient and a hospital abroad. It gathers records, produces a quote, books the surgeon, often books the flight and the hotel, and meets the patient at the airport.

FUE

follicular unit excision, follicular unit extraction, FUE hair transplant

Harvesting hair by cutting individual follicular units out of the donor area one at a time through small circular punches, rather than taking a strip of scalp and dissecting it.

G (1)

Graft

follicular unit, FU, hair graft

In the older surgical sense, tissue moved from one place to another and expected to take.

H (1)

Health tourism

sağlık turizmi, thermal tourism, spa tourism

The wider administrative category: travel for treatment, for a cure, for thermal and spa stays, and for the care of travellers who fall ill while abroad.

I (1)

Informed consent

consent, valid consent, consent to treatment

A patient's agreement to a procedure, given after being told what it involves, what it risks and what the alternatives are.

L (1)

Length of stay

LOS, ward nights, inpatient days

How long a patient occupies a hospital bed. On a price page it is a number of nights the seller has budgeted for; in a health statistic it is a measured average across discharges.

M (3)

Medical tourism

health tourism, surgical tourism, dental tourism

The most widely used name for travelling to another country to be treated, and the most argued-about. This site writes medical travel and cross-border care instead.

Medical travel

cross-border care, cross-border healthcare, treatment abroad

Travelling from one country to another to be treated. It is the name this site uses throughout, alongside cross-border care, and the name the trade itself has moved towards over twenty years.

Medical visa

treatment visa, e-Medical Visa, medical attendant visa

An entry permission issued for treatment. Some states run a dedicated class that names the hospital and admits a companion; others treat a patient arriving for surgery as an ordinary visitor.

O (1)

Out-of-pocket

OOP, self-pay, direct payment

Money a household hands to a provider itself, rather than through a tax, a premium or a pooled fund.

P (3)

Package price

package, all-inclusive package, fixed-price package

One figure covering a named list of items for one episode of treatment: theatre time, a surgeon, an anaesthetist, a stated number of nights. It is the form almost every price on this site takes.

Patient mobility

cross-border healthcare, free movement of patients, the Directive route

The European Union's word for patients receiving healthcare in a member state other than the one that insures them, and being reimbursed for it at home.

Prior authorisation

prior authorization, preauthorization, pre-approval

A payer's advance decision that a treatment is medically necessary.

R (3)

Repatriation

medical evacuation, medevac, air ambulance

Moving a patient who cannot fly commercially from where they were treated to a hospital at home that can finish the job — or moving a body.

Reproductive exile

cross border reproductive care, CBRC, reproductive travel

Travelling abroad for fertility treatment because it is unlawful, unavailable or unaffordable at home.

Revision

revision surgery, redo, corrective surgery

A second operation on the site of a first: an implant replaced, a nose re-cut, a sleeve converted, a graft redone.

T (1)

Tariff

schedule fee, fee schedule, national tariff

A schedule of amounts set by a state or an insurer for named items of care. It fixes what the payer will pay, or refund, for each item.

W (1)

Wellness travel

wellness tourism, spa travel, retreat travel

Travel undertaken to maintain or improve wellbeing rather than to treat a condition.

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