HEALING JOURNEYS MORE AMERICANS GOING ABROAD TO SAVE MONEY ON SURGERY.

Byline: Brad A. Greenberg Staff Writer

Valerie Capeloto was traveling in Thailand when her struggle with lupus left her so lethargic that her husband had to wheel her into a hospital.

She worried that she would leave Bumrun-grad International Hospital worse off then before she went in. But after a three-day stay and only a $411 bill, Capeloto emerged with a new perspective.``I got excellent medical treatment,'' she said. ``I didn't feel like it was a Third World country.''

Capeloto returned to Calabasas and began sharing the gospel of foreign health care with her friends.

She quickly realized that some people were willing to travel abroad for top-line medical care at clearance prices.

Out of a spare bedroom, from which she and her husband, ``Rudy'' Rupak Acharya, run PlanetHospital, they have established partnerships with 20 hospitals in eight countries. Acharya connects interested patients with qualified doctors and ensures the quality of their experience.

In the 10 months since PlanetHospital began, the Calabasas-based company has outsourced surgical procedures for more than 500 Americans to Belgium, Brazil, Costa Rica, India, Mexico, Poland, Singapore and Thailand.

``We're not a travel agency,'' said Acharya, an entrepreneur and medical school dropout.

``People are discovering going overseas is a viable option. However, they don't know a good doctor from a bad doctor, a good hospital from a bad hospital,'' he said. ``Our job is to create a corridor of safety.''

With more than 40 million Americans lacking medical insurance, the number of people looking for health care alternatives is growing. Bumrungrad, a resort-like clinic in Bangkok, treated 25,000 Americans in 2005. The hospital has experienced a 25 percent increase in American patients this year, its spokesman said.

Health-care economists said medical tourism is a reasonable option for some Americans, such as those who are uninsured or need expensive procedures. But not for most people.

``It takes a very rare patient for this to make sense,'' said David Dranove, director of the Center for Health Industry Market Economics at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Sharon Taylor fits that niche. The Moreno Valley feed-store owner doesn't have insurance and needed a hip replaced this winter after dislocating it in a horseback-riding accident.

Taylor, 63, had never been on a plane and was apprehensive about a 22-hour flight to India. She also was worried about the quality of care there. So she chose Belgium, the tiny western European nation best-known for its waffles and chocolate.

After an 11-hour flight, a chauffeur greeted Taylor. PlanetHospital, which has employees everywhere it sends patients, provided everything -- transportation, chocolates, a cell phone, physical therapy.

``They treated me like I was royalty. It was just first-class the whole way,'' she said.

She and her travel companion were back in Southern California two weeks later. The total trip, including two first-class plane tickets, food and the surgery, cost $26,000.

PlanetHospital estimates hip replacement would cost an uninsured American between $43,000 and $63,000 in the States.

That's leading some businesses to consider sending employees abroad for expensive medical procedures.

Vita Nova in Van Nuys has never been able to provide health insurance for its 20 employees. But the company, which makes glass and marble mosaics for buildings, including the Bellagio and Wynn hotels in Las Vegas, has been in talks with PlanetHospital.

``The ultimate form of outsourcing,'' said owner Roger Gariano, could make ``medical coverage for a small business like mine realistic.''

Woodland Hills-based Health Net already provides a cross-border insurance plan for people traveling between the United States and Mexico. But that appeals to a different demographic than medical tourism does, said Larry Akey, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans.

So far, no insurance companies offer reduced-rate packages that would encourage or require specific medical procedures being performed in Belgium, Costa Rica or India, he said.

The reasons, Akey said, are twofold. First, if a patient was injured or died en route to India or on the operating table, who would be liable? And second, how can health providers evaluate the quality of foreign care?

While the former question lingers, PlanetHospital and similar companies are attracting clients based on their ability to guarantee quality care.

That's what convinced Krystina Price of Santa Monica to book a face lift in Bangkok with 48 hours' notice.

She was already flying to Kuala Lumpur with a first-class ticket she won at a travel convention. But after talking with Acharya of PlanetHospital and learning how inexpensive surgery could be overseas, Price decided she wanted to freshen up her 57-year-old face.

``I'm not trying to be a beauty queen here or pass for 23. I just don't want to look tired,'' said Price, who bears a striking resemblance to Susan Sarandon. ``And at $1,300, you can put it on a credit card -- and live to pay it off.''

The ad saleswoman and her boyfriend, Barry Edenstrom, spent the following week traveling Thailand -- riding elephants, visiting temples, shopping at the floating market -- and then returned to Yanhee International Hospital to have her sutures removed.

While Price was finishing paperwork and checking out, Edenstrom, a commercial filmmaker who lives in Marina del Rey, wandered downstairs to the dental floor. UCLA had quoted him $10,000 to replace bridges on several teeth; a private-practice dentist estimated $15,000. The Thai price: 24,000 baht -- $624.

``I'll go back, and it will pay for itself.''

Brad Greenberg, [phone]

brad.greenberg(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

7 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 4 -- cover -- color) A nip-tuck vacation

Lower prices make overseas surgical procedures popular

(5 -- 6) Krystina Price and Barry Edenstrom, above, were able to indulge in some of the more touristy aspects when they traveled to Thailand for her $1,300 face lift. At left, the staff at Yanhee International Hospital in Bangkok.

(7) The Calabasas-based PlanetHospital coordinated Price's trip to Thailand, as well as the surgery and care she received while there. Her boyfriend, Edenstrom, is considering a return to that country for dental work.