There's no doubt that medical treatment in Thailand will save you money on most medical procedures compared with Europe, the US and the Middle East. But it's easy to forget that part of the cost of your treatment is the follow-up with your local doctor once you return home.

Before you travel coordinate with your local doctor on follow-up care and financing. Will you need post-operative care at home? Special drugs? These are all part of your total costs.

Best advice is to arrange for your Thailand doctor to discuss your treatment in advance with your home doctor. Your follow-up care should be equally important to both. Your hospital or medical coordinator can make the arrangements for you.

If you are an American thinking about traveling overseas for medical treatment, the American Medical Association has issued guidelines of things to consider before you travel or engage the services of a foreign hospital or doctor: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/31/medicaltourism.pdf

Useful checklist to have if you need to convince your employer or insurance company to help foot the bill.

While medical tourism is usually safe, cost-effective and transparent, there are a few things you should be aware of when planning your trip. Try to avoid the following:

Member Cards sometimes offered by medical travel companies these cards promise -- for an upfront annual fee -- extra benefits for travelers such as a free health check-up, priority check-in at selected hotels and hospitals, welcome gift baskets and other sundries. Most of these benefits are standard amenities anyway, or you can usually get them just by asking. Be wary of things like automatic room upgrade at “preferred parter” hotels. Think about it: if a room upgrade is automatic either the hotel has lots and lots of rooms to guarantee this or, more likely, it’s not a very popular hotel or destination.