International Patients

What it will cost, and how to get an estimate

The hospital does not publish prices, and no honest price can be quoted until a doctor has read your reports. What a treatment costs depends on the diagnosis, the operation chosen, the type of room, how long you stay and whether anything goes wrong. Any hospital that gives you a number before it has seen your reports is guessing.

What you can get is an estimate. Send your reports and a doctor will look at them, work out the likely treatment and the likely length of stay, and put a figure against it. The hospital's published commitment is that the estimate reaches you within 24 hours of the enquiry being taken up. If you have not heard back, call.

An estimate is not a fixed price. It covers the planned treatment and the expected stay. It changes if you stay longer than expected or a complication arises, and you are told when it changes. Flights, visa fees, where your family stays and what you live on while you are here are not part of it, and you should budget for them separately. Payment for the planned treatment is asked for before treatment begins.

If the person is seriously ill now, do not wait for an estimate. The emergency department is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Call 040 4699 9999 from abroad as +91 40 4699 9999. The free ambulance number 1800 2024 works only inside India.

What to send so the estimate is worth having

A vague enquiry gets a vague answer. Send as much of this as you have, by email or on WhatsApp, and say which country you are writing from.

• The patient's age, sex and current weight
• What the problem is, in your own words, and how long it has been going on
• The diagnosis your own doctor has made, if there is one
• All test results, scan reports and discharge summaries from treatment so far
• The actual scan images, not only the report, if you can send them
• A list of the medicines the patient is taking now, with doses
• What has already been tried, and what did not work

Talking to a doctor before you travel

You can ask for an opinion on the reports before you commit to the journey. Reports can be sent by email or WhatsApp, or uploaded on the hospital's patient app, and a video consultation with the consultant can be arranged so you can ask questions and the doctor can explain the treatment options.

Ask when you send the reports whether a video consultation is possible for your case, what it costs and when it can be held. Hyderabad is on Indian Standard Time, UTC+5:30.

The medical visa

You will need a visa to enter India for treatment. Once you have accepted the estimate, the hospital sends you a Medical Visa Invitation Letter, which is the document the Indian embassy or consulate in your country asks to see. The hospital's international patient staff can also help with the visa application, tickets and travel arrangements.

Apply for the visa for the people travelling with the patient at the same time, not afterwards.

If you are already in India, you do not need any of this. Come to the hospital, or call and ask for an appointment in the department you need.

If the treatment is a transplant

A transplant from a living donor takes longer to arrange for a patient travelling from another country than for an Indian patient, and the difference is legal rather than medical. Indian law requires the donor and recipient case to go before an authorisation committee, and the documents proving the relationship between them have to be certified by the embassy of your own country.

Ask the transplant team what documents they need and how long the approvals take before you book flights or give up a home. Do not plan the journey around the date of the operation until the team has confirmed it.

What to carry with you

• Passport and visa, and the invitation letter if one was issued
• All medical reports and medication details, originals or copies, including anything about past or ongoing treatment
• Scan images and X-rays, prescriptions, and records of previous operations
• Vaccination certificates, such as yellow fever and polio, and immunisation records
• Any referral note from your own doctor
• A fitness-to-fly certificate, if the patient's condition calls for one
• Enough money to start with, in currency, traveller's cheques or cards, before any transfer clears

Arriving in Hyderabad

The hospital's international patient staff arrange the practical side of the stay. Ask which of these are included and which are charged for, before you land, so there is no surprise.

• Transfer from the airport
• Accommodation for the family travelling with the patient
• Local travel
• A temporary SIM connection
• An interpreter. Ask which languages, because it will not be every language
• Meals prepared to a particular diet
• Information on prayer services
• Daily updates to family and friends at home

At the hospital

• A Guest Relations Executive meets you and takes you through registration and passport verification.
• An appointment is raised with the speciality or the doctor you need. If you are not sure which, you can start with one of the health check-up packages.
• After the patient has been assessed, the doctors draw up a treatment plan. You are then sat down and taken through the cost of that plan, which is payable before treatment starts.
• Your bill is updated as each service is used rather than assembled at the end, so you can ask what it stands at on any day.
• On recovery you are given an itemised bill and discharged, and a vehicle takes you to where you are staying.
• After the review and follow-up, a fit-to-fly certificate is issued, and a vehicle takes you to the airport with a Guest Relations Executive.

Paying

If you hold health insurance, ask your insurer before you travel which services, tests and procedures it covers abroad and what the limits are on room charges and outpatient services. Many policies cap these. You can ask for pre-authorisation on the basis of the hospital's estimate, or pay the hospital yourself and claim reimbursement later.

Ask the hospital for its bank details directly, over the phone, before you send any money. Do not use bank details that arrive in an email or a message from anyone else.

• Foreign currency
• Credit and debit cards
• Wire transfer
• Health insurance
• Embassy sponsorship

After you go home

You leave with the discharge summary, your reports and the list of medicines to continue. Before you leave the building, get the name of the doctor or coordinator to contact from abroad, a number that works internationally, and the date your review is due.

Follow-up questions after you are home can be put to the consultant by video consultation. Ask how that is arranged before you fly.