UC San Diego Health surgeons traveled to Tijuana, Mexico, June 2 to open a bariatric ASC in collaboration with the International Institute of Metabolic Medicine, a facility that specializes in the treatment of medical tourism patients, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.
The IINM surgery center is accredited by The Joint Commission and will follow the guidelines of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.
Many Americans travel to Mexico for surgery at a lower cost or have procedures that they may not have qualified for in the U.S.
"What happens is many patients don't qualify for insurance or they don't have insurance. For example, if you have a [body mass index] of 37, and you are 80 pounds overweight, but you don't have diabetes, the insurance will not cover you," Santiago Horgan, MD, director of the Center for the Future of Surgery at UC San Diego School of Medicine, told the publication. "But, if you don't do anything, you will have diabetes. So, those patients can come here and have surgery for a way lower price, in a safe environment that is Joint Commission-approved, with the same standards."
The collaboration is an academic one and not a total clinical partnership, so UC San Diego Health surgeons will not have direct oversight of the ASC, according to the report.