Navigating language barriers to ensure cost savings and quality care
Healix began work with a university who have a number of young American students studying abroad in Rome, Italy.
After dealing with multiple cases for the university, Healix noticed that several patients were facing similar challenges, including the difficulty to access healthcare in Italy, the lack of English-speaking doctors and a lack of availability of specialists.
Challenge
Unfortunately, access to healthcare in Italy can be a challenge, not only for foreign students but also for local residents. With public services over-saturated, Italians tend to use private healthcare providers, which leads to saturation in the private system as well.
Some students started presenting us with challenging medical situations, like psychological treatment, which was complicated by the need for English speaking specialists.
Initially, Healix used local agents to arrange all services. However, this meant the payment of agent fees and a certain lack of control over providers.
Outcome
After thorough research, Healix identified several local international facilities able to meet our requirements – specifically with multilingual services and direct insurance GOP (guarantee of payment) acceptance and billing. As part of our work, an agreement was also reached for costs to be kept stable, according to a price list, and certain items to be discounted from the normal rate.
Healix also reached an agreement with a specific international hospital in Italy which provided all of the services required, streamlining healthcare treatment and reducing wait times for the students.