New Hip Destination

After a career on the business side of the medical industry, Steven Lash was intrigued when he saw a May 2006 story in Time magazine, headlined “Outsourcing Your Heart.” He mulled over the idea, but could never figure out how to turn medical tourism into a moneymaker. “All the articles were talking about people who got terrific care internationally,” says Lash, 50. “But these were all people who didn’t have insurance. I didn’t see that as a good business model because what’s to stop them from traveling to buy their health-care on their own?”

Then, the epiphany: Roughly 17 percent of employer-sponsored health insurance policies now offer health reimbursement accounts (HRAs), which let employers pay into a tax-deductible fund that employees can tap to pay for  health-care costs.

“When I learned about HRAs last year, I had my “aha” moment,” Lash says. That’s when San Diego-based Satori Medical was born. When an employee applies HRA funds to a procedure (hip replacement and cardiac surgery are some of the most cost effective) at one of Satori Medical’s International Centers of Excellence, the savings are dramatic. “Say somebody needs a hip procedure that costs $60,000 in the U.S.,” says Lash, who has set up centers in 7 countries including Costa Rica, India and Turkey, and projects sales of $4 million this year. “If they decide to have the operation at a Satori Center, they can travel with a partner and have no co-pay. Turns out to be $40,000 in savings. Everybody wins.”