Make money on medical tourism

Minor's net income has risen 236 percent since 2003, and the company's sales are up 57 percent during that period. And although the stock is up 32 percent year-to-date, Semple still suspects there's more to come, given the strong demand for high-end facilities in the region.

Rounding out Semple's picks in Southeast Asia are health care company Parkway Holdings, Airports of Thailand. Parkway, based in Singapore, owns hospitals and diagnostic services. Semple likes the company because of its size. It owns hospitals in Brunei, China, India and Malaysia. It also has a nurse-training school in Pakistan.

Semple chooses Airports of Thailand for one simple reason: To get to the country, most people need to fly and must use the company's facilities. This is his most expensive pick, but he cites the company's real estate holdings, which extend beyond Bangkok and into provincial airports like Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai in northern Thailand, and Hat Yai and Phuket in the south.

Singapore will likely be a hotbed of medical tourism in the years to come. The island nation treated 374,000 foreign patients in 2005, up from 147,000 in 2000. The country is expecting 500,000 patients this year.

A host of companies are poised to benefit from this, including Raffles medical, the country’s largest private healthcare provider with 60 clinics. The company is trying to raise the number of foreign patients it gets at its flagship hospital from the current 30% to more than 50% during the next two years. Its expansion also includes a goal of adding five new clinics every year.

Biosensors, a company that manufactures medical devices like heart stents and blood pressure transducers, will also rake it in as more medical tourists come to Singapore. Here’s why: a coronary angioplasty in Singapore costs $20,000 — $10,000 cheaper than what it would cost in the United States.

Heading west to Turkey is Acibadem Saglik Hizmetleri, owner and operator of hospitals and clinics throughout the Middle Eastern nation. The country only recently turned away from socialized medicine and is now experimenting with partial privatization. Semple says those behind Acibadem are trying to make Turkey the region's center for health care.

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Europeans have been heading to Turkey for health care because most have already vacationed there and are comfortable with the country's infrastructure. They also go for the price. Staff and facility costs are the cheapest in the region, mainly because the hospital has no legal costs to cover since all liability is in the patient's hands.

"You swap out your rights [when you go abroad for medical treatment]," Semple says. "There is more risk."

This risk, though, is being mitigated by insurance companies that stand to benefit if more of their clients go abroad for cheaper surgeries. This is already happening. In March, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina began covering surgeries at Bumrungrad, while United Group Programs in Boca Raton, Fla., has targeted self-insured employers by promoting overseas surgeries to 40 corporations. UGP claims its plan saves employers 50 percent in health care costs and cuts employee contributions to zero.

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