After a checkup abroad, bring your doctor a signed English report, your scan files in DICOM format, your lab results with normal ranges, any pathology reports, and the hospital's contact details. Call ahead to ask how your doctor's office accepts outside images. For surgery, the quote usually covers only the operation; follow-up care, insurance gaps, extra time and travel after surgery are the costs people leave out.
Part 1: bringing your records home
What to bring
- Written report in English, signed by the hospital doctor
- Scan files (DICOM) on a disc, USB drive or download link, not just printed images or photos
- List of tests done, with the lab's normal ranges
- Pathology reports, if a biopsy was taken or a polyp removed
- The hospital's contact details and the examining doctor's name
- Receipts, if you'll claim anything from insurance
Before your appointment
- Call your doctor's office and ask how they accept outside images (upload portal, disc, USB).
- Ask whether they need the report translated by a certified translator.
- Expect that your doctor may repeat some tests, especially imaging. That's their decision, based on what they need.
What we don't do
We don't interpret results. That's for the hospital doctor who examined you, and your own doctor.
Part 2: why cheap surgery isn't always cheap
We start with checkups, not surgery, for a reason. With surgery, the price quoted abroad is rarely the full cost.
| Hidden cost | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Follow-up at home | Some US doctors are reluctant to take over complications from surgery done abroad |
| Insurance gaps | Many travel policies exclude complications from treatment that was the reason for the trip |
| Extra time | Longer stays, changed flights, more days off work |
| Flying after surgery | Ask the surgeon when it's safe to fly; long flights after surgery carry risks |
| Revision or repeat procedures | If something needs redoing, who pays, and where? |
If you're considering surgery abroad anyway
- Get a written plan for complications before you pay anything: who treats them, where, and who pays.
- Line up a doctor at home who will see you afterwards.
- Look at medical travel complication insurance, which is sold separately.
- Allow enough recovery time before flying home.
Sources
- General guidance; no statistics used. See our travel insurance guide for coverage details.
Please note. General information, not medical advice.
Reviewed at least every three monthsNo paid placementsInformation, not medical adviceOur editorial standards
Joe Yang, PhD, Economics. Joe Yang holds a PhD in economics from the University of Washington. For four years Joe evaluated the costs and savings of US health programs for insurers and employers at a health-analytics company, and before that studied pricing and demand as an economist at Amazon and a data scientist at Oracle. These guides apply the same discipline to a simpler question: what care really costs, and where.
