‘Medical onshoring’ looks for support

By JILL SCHRAMM, Staff Writer jschramm@minotdailynews.com
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – An engineer in North Carolina has filed a patent for a new medical-care system that he says would be a good business fit with the Minot area.


C. Alex Chien said Wednesday that Minot has the technology, transportation and environment to host a prototype “medical onshoring” clinic.


Chien, a self-employed engineer, is a former rural economic developer with RochesterTel, former owners of Minot Telephone Co. SRT purchased Minot Telephone Co. in 1994.


Chien’s project focuses on the thousands of Americans who seek lower-cost medical care overseas each year. He is proposing to bring those services to America, or “onshore,” by establishing clinics on American Indian reservations. The clinics would be served by medical providers from Asia and Europe who are accredited by the Joint Commission International.


Chien said the process of setting up his project would be similar to what the tribes went through to create and manage the casino industry. He has been visiting with tribes from around the United States and Canada.


“If you have a situation where you have Native American nations already asserting their sovereignty, why not health care?” he said. “We are in contact with many of the tribes, and a lot of them are listening.”


Dr. Monica Mayer of New Town said a similar concept was proposed to use tribal sovereignty to bring cheaper drugs to this country so people didn’t have to travel to Canada. The federal government stepped in and stopped it, said Mayer, who is chief executive officer of the Three Affiliated Tribes’ Minni-Tohe Health Center.


“Patients Beyond Borders,” a guidebook for consumers considering international medical travel, reports that more than 150,000  Americans traveled abroad for health care in 2006. That number was expected to double by this year.


Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina has been the first U.S.-based Blues plan to form an affiliation with a foreign hospital. Since forming the affiliation in Thailand nearly a year ago, it since has added affiliations with facilities in Turkey, Ireland, Costa Rica and Singapore, according to its Web site.


Many foreign physicians are likely to be receptive to a clinic on American soil, Chien said. Some already have remote clinics in places like the Middle East. Some doctors also have trained in the United States.


Chien foresees his medical onshoring eventually moving off tribal land to places like Minot.


Chien visited Minot around 1990 while working on North Dakota’s state communications network plan.  He said the city’s economy and the presence of an airport capable of handling larger planes  led him to consider Minot as a prime candidate.


Chien is seeking investment capital and key staff, including a chief executive officer, to help launch a prototype on Indian reservations.


Chien said he expects some hesitancy from medical groups and physicians toward the idea.


“My hope would be, especially in Minot, that we would work together,” he said. “Our patent-pending model would supplement existing health-care providers. Our goals are to maximize scarce medical-care dollars and provide affordable, quality health-care services that are engineered with  best practices at the forefront.”


Chien said his system and its proprietary technology could reduce U.S. health-care costs by at least 15 percent.


Chien said the project’s technology could be engineered in about 1 1/2 years. He’s not certain about a time frame for the regulatory and legal issues, though.


“A couple years, five or 10, who knows?” he said. “I am fully aware that this could take 20 to 30 years to implement.”