Local Medical Experts Urge Caution With Medical Tourism

Mexican investigative documents show an anonymous tip led authorities to a remote shack where four kidnapped Americans were held.

Inside the shack, the documents said, Latavia "Tay" McGee and Eric Williams were blindfolded. Beside them, Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown were found dead.

The Scorpions faction of the Gulf cartel issued a public apology saying the kidnappers had gone against the cartel's rules, which include "respecting the life and well-being of the innocent."

The apology letter was with five members of the cartel found tied up face down on the pavement.

Those men have now been charged with aggravated kidnapping and homicide.

One of four kidnapped Americans had traveled to Mexico for a medical procedure.

Patients Beyond Borders is a group that helps connect people with health providers outside the US. They said depending on where you go and what type of procedure you're getting, people can save 20 to 90%.

Lots of people are choosing to go overseas for surgeries and medications because it's so much cheaper, but it can also be more dangerous.

Americans go overseas because they don't have to wait a long time to get treatments and they can get procedures that aren't approved or available in the US.

Weight loss surgeries are one of the most common.

“Unfortunately, coverage for obesity treatment is lacking in America [...]. We should be writing to our state representatives and our national representatives and talking to our employers and getting coverage for a disease," said Dr. Cathy Gaffney, Medical Director of Bailey Bariatrics. "[B]ut what often people don’t know is if you don’t have bariatric coverage and you do go to Mexico and you do have a complication and you need something here, your insurance won’t cover that. So, you’re really not saving any money if you need care that your insurance is ultimately not going to cover."

But getting a procedure done internationally can come at its own cost depending on the person's condition and where they're traveling.

Many people travel too soon after surgery and sometimes don't get quality care, which can lead to infections and there are often language barriers.

Bailey Bariatrics in Owasso said if you go overseas for surgery and come home with complications you'd have to go to an ER, because they only accept patients from other centers of excellence.

“There are so many patients that do that. We need room in our programs to take care of our patients," said Dr. Gaffney. "[B]ecause of the cost of the lack of coverage for correcting surgical problems electively and the lack of coverage of that, the hospital unfortunately just couldn’t afford to bare that cost."

Doctor Gaffney said a thorough prescreening process is how you they ensure people are getting the right type of surgery the first time.

And, she said care doesn't stop after the surgery.

“Preoperatively we call in like training for a race. The surgery is not the end of your race. The surgery is the beginning of your race. You don’t just show up for a race that you have to run for the rest of your life without any training for it.," said Dr. Gaffney. "We see our patients post op every 3 months for two years to ensure their body composition is ideal, that they’re not losing too much muscle mass. We check their vitamin levels every 3 months for the first year at least and then yearly afterwards. So obviously the post op follow up is extremely important and I wouldn’t think that patients would go back to Mexico to get that done."

Experts said before getting a procedure in another country talk to your doctor here, do your research, and get international travel health insurance. When you go, bring copies of your medical records.

Click here for information on medical tourism.