My First-Hand Experience with Colombia’s Private Health Care System

Hi everyone, it’s Stu here. Patrick gets lots of healthcare-related questions about Colombia so he asked me to describe my experience so far since I’ve only been here since January but I’ve had to use the system. Colombia’s private health care system is excellent. So here’s my medical story:

I don’t remember the day I got my hernia but I remember the day I found out loud and clear. It was the day I became a medical tourism patient without even knowing it.

From diagnosis to surgery for my non-emergency, non-strangulated inguinal hernia repair was a total of 5 weeks and under $2000. Going private can be a HUGE advantage down here moving you up to the front of the line. The average inguinal hernia repair surgery in the US is $5500-6500. I saved money and got great care. Here’s how it happened….

I’d only been living in Cali Colombia for 2 months at the time. I was very stressed out over learning a new city, trying to improve my Spanish so I can function in day to day life and set up new habits for a place to call home like markets, gym, place to learn some new hobbies, events to network, etc. Being in Cali was fortunate for me and my hernia as you will see later….

Other than telling me I need to learn to relax and enjoy the journey more, my doctor tells me I have to stop lifting weights (my favorite form of exercise) cause I have a hernia. My first thought is ‘hey you’re taking my gym away. How can I possibly relax now? Walking and cardio just doesn’t cut it.’

My Medical Experience in Cali

My first bit of good fortune was meeting Dr. Julian, and yes if you come to Colombia and you want to meet a general practice doctor or get a 2nd opinion, you can meet him too. Even if he took away my ability to lift weights…..He can even arrange it that he comes to your hotel or apartment rental here to check you out. Cost: ~$40 for a house call.

Are you a regular Cali Adventurer reader? If so, you already know about Dr. Julian.

Dr. Julian speaks excellent English, is a great doctor and did something I haven’t had happen to me since I was a little kid, if ever. He actually sat and talked to me. I don’t mean going through the laundry list of questions of ‘Do you smoke? How much do you drink per week? How much exercise do you get and what type?’ like all doctors ask, but he sat with me for 20 minutes and just talked to me to get to know me because he felt he could treat me better if he knew a little more about me.

That’s when I knew my medical and health care experience in Colombia was going to be really, really different than I was used to.

From Ultrasound and Diagnosis to Surgery

First orders were blood tests and an ultrasound to get some pics to confirm that it’s a hernia. The basic insurance everyone must have in Colombia is called EPS and they do a pretty good job managing their system. (You can read more about health insurance here). Many companies including the prepagadas (prepaids) offer an EPS plan but most of us pay more for faster access. But EPS is well liked by Colombians far more than any HMO (the closest equivalent) we have in the States. Their lab division took me in about 8 days for my ultrasound. Cost? $32 and because there were no claims to file and I was paying directly and privately, they took me faster.

And my costs for the blood work from a private lab: $80 (pic above)

The ultrasound confirmed it and I was referred to Dr. Diego Toro, a surgeon at Hospital Imbanaco. The name means nothing to you, as it did to me at first. But I soon learned that Imbanaco is rated one of the top 20 hospitals in all of South America. They are really good. In fact, 2 of the best hospitals in Colombia and both in the top 20 in South America are here in Cali. I was fortunate that Imbanaco is one of the two. They have all the certifications including JCI that you would want to see from a hospital as a medical tourist, and unlike some that get the JCI designation for certain specialties, Imbanaco carries it for the whole hospital. Cost for my surgical consult: $65

Like in the US, my surgeon here wanted to be sure I was healthy enough for surgery so I went to an internist to analyze my blood work and organize an EKG to track my heart rhythm. Total cost of the internist appt, followup, and EKG: $150

But I knew that I was lucky. First of all, I’m in good health so I knew I would not have to wait. Secondly, I speak some Spanish but understand it pretty well. My girlfriend who came with me is a native Spanish speaker and helped me understand more and move things along faster. This was an area where I’d have been concerned if I was by myself. Thankfully, Imbanaco has an office you can coordinate with or I can help coordinate this for you.

Quick recap-My costs so far are $40, $32, $80, 65 and $150 or a total of $367 for everything leading up to the surgery from my first consult with Dr. Julian

Surgery Day

Fast forward a week. Remember this whole process was only 5 weeks from not knowing I had a hernia to getting the hernia repair surgery. Now it’s surgery day. I’m thankful that it could not have gone smoother.

Imbanaco is a large, pretty impressive campus of buildings and my surgery was in the newest one. Everything was bright, shiny and clean. It looked no different than any American hospital with one major difference, the emergency room here was not the chaos that most US hospitals have. All I needed was my passport (or cedula if you have one), my payment methods (Cash and Credit Card) and my hernia and I were ready.

The combined cost of the surgeon and Imbanaco’s cost was 3,500,000 Colombian pesos or COP. At a standard exchange rate I paid of 3000 COP to 1 USD (the Dollar is even stronger now at 3300 at the time of this writing), that cost is $1,166 USD.

Aftercare: Colombia Health Care Style

Using either one of the 2 pharmacies on-site or one of the 5 less than 4 blocks away from Imbanaco, I got my prescription filled for a 5 day supply of codeine for the pain and a 10 day supply of an anti-inflammatory and the cost for those was $22.

While I was lucky to have someone here to take care of me, I saw this was my introduction to medical tourism because the aftercare is critical to a successful procedure. My website if you have questions about surgery here in Cali is Medicalitour.com.

Final Tally

Before my surgery, I was at $367 out of pocket. Surgery Day was an additional $1,166, and my post-surgery medications were $22 so my grand total for my Colombian hernia surgery experience was $1,555 at the typical exchange rate. Because the dollar is even stronger against the COP right now, your price is even less for these services, not including travel and lodging costs.

Again, at an average cost of $5500-6500, I saved at least $4000 or more than 66% just by having the surgery here in Colombia over a high deductible plan I would have in the US as a self-employed person. And the care was excellent from Dr. Julian initially diagnosing me and guiding me through the private system to Dr. Diego and the internist to the Hospital in general. Everyone was great, professional, friendly, and helpful. I could not have asked for a better experience.

While I knew that people traveled overseas to get procedures done, until I tried it myself I never considered it. But now I’m completely convinced and confident in the quality of care I will get here in Colombia.

If you have any questions about my experience you can comment here or visit my website at Medicalitour.com and reach out to me there.