Possible Trip to Germany for Multi-Level ADR
 

Hello! I'm exploring the possibility of going to Germany for surgery. What have been the experiences communicating with surgeons beforehand? How is payment made for the surgery? How is a medical tourism company paid? Is a tourism representative necessary or recommended? Should I go by myself if it's not convenient for family members?

I went to Bertagnoli in Bogen if your looking at him......call me.

To give partial answers:

Communication: really depends on the surgeon and their office. Some are better than others but, in general, everyone's consensus here is that they're reasonably good. There's always a few real stinkers so check into posts about any given surgeon once you start narrowing your list.

Payment: Again, depends on the office. We've paid by bank transfer, credit card and by cash, depending on who we were paying.

Tourism representative: Personal opinion is to avoid them and only use them if you're stretched on your research time to the point where you can either research the medical stuff or the location. Buying a Lonely Planet book or similar plus a little time on the internet typically gives you enough to get a feel for an area. Pretty much all of the surgeons you're likely to see in Europe aren't in places that tend to be abusive towards tourists.

Going by yourself: Can be done but you're likely to need more recovery time and more help. If you do this, I can't argue strenuously enough to pack light. Use the money you would have paid for the second ticket and figure that you'll go through that same amount making travel easier for yourself. It can range from taxis and help during travel, purchasing some stuff overseas, leaving behind travel-only purchases when you return to make your returning luggage lighter, etc.

Thanks.
 

annapurna, thanks for the advice. I read on here somewhere about checking the exchange rate used by your bank (for paying the hospital) - don't know much about that. The other thing I'll have to look into is how to pay for things there. I've been to Germany twice, but that was back when people used travelers checks.

exchange rate
 

The bank normally charges 3% fee for currency conversion. Credit Card does the same (most of them), but most cards have at least 1% credit reward or whatever they call it. it might be better to pay with a credit card if you can pay it all back on the next statement. In my case I saved 1%. It was not huge savings, but $350 bucks doesn't hurt either :).

Germaany vs Spain
 

Sorry, forgot to add - Clavel will accept credit cards, and it is one payment. Bierstedt will only accept a wire transfer, and you have to make 2 of them.

For non-surgery costs, you can sometimes find a bank in the US who will sell you Euros for very low to no fee, generally if you already have an account with them or they're already making money off you in some other way. Depending on how much money you want to carry, you might be able to use that for food, lodging, and travel instead of paying the credit card fees for every transaction.

Thanks
 

Romakis and annapurna, thanks for the info. and ideas!

Hi Tom
 

I had my back surgery by Dr. Biersted in Germany in 2012. Is there anything I can answer for you?

Thanks
 

Thanks, Boris. How did you transfer funds?

I've been researching how currency exchange works. It really seems to be a bank scam. And I'm not using this word lightly. It appears that occasional travelers like us are routinely ripped off by banks. So, with a little searching, I found TransferWise. There are probably other similar companies. Has anyone here had experience with TransferWise? I haven't signed up yet, but probably will.