There is no doubt that the spa is making a comeback. Despite the recent trend, it is of course a centuries old phenomenon – a thousand baths were to be found in ancient Rome and the grandest, Thermae of Diocletion, stretched for over 1.4million feet. Today’s spas are perhaps not quite as grand but people are certainly catching on to the benefits, both physical and mental, that such visits can bring.

More U.S. health insurers are slashing costs by sending policyholders overseas for pricey procedures.  For years, Americans have been traveling abroad to save money on elective procedures or dental work. David Boucher, 49, doesn't fit the usual profile for such medical tourists. An assistant vice-president of health-care services at Blue Cross & Blue Shield of South Carolina, he has ample health benefits...

Benefit managers can take certain steps to ensure that integrating a medical tourism option into an employer-sponsored health plan is successful and worthwhile. The first step is to "analyze the potential impact that offering the benefit might have," said Jay Savan, a Towers Perrin principal based in St. Louis...

Medical tourism provides high-quality care with less financial suffering.  Because the cost of U.S. healthcare remains high, medical tourism could save an American patient thousands of dollars on procedures such as cosmetic or dental surgeries—as long as they are willing to travel to a foreign country where the costs are considerably lower...

Yonatan Gher and his partner, who are Israeli, plan eventually to tell their child about being made in India, in the womb of a stranger, with the egg of a Mumbai housewife they picked from an Internet lineup. The embryo was formed in January in an Indian fertility clinic about 2,500 miles from the couple’s home in Tel Aviv, produced by doctors who have begun specializing in surrogacy services for couples from around the world...

Two in five Americans would consider travelling abroad for a medical procedure if it cost half the US price and quality was at least equal, according to a Deloitte consumer health report published today. The data highlight the exploding interest in so-called medical tourism, where patients seek treatment for elective surgeries such as hip replacements available more cheaply overseas.

The Czech Republic has become a popular medical tourism destination. Between seven and ten American women go on in-vitro holidays each month to reproductive health clinics in the Czech Republic, where experimental fertility treatments are considered no more than a usual trip to the spa.