· Medtu Care Team
How to Avoid Medical Travel Scams: A Checklist for Verifying Indian Facilitators
A verification checklist for choosing an Indian medical-travel facilitator: who pays them, how quotes get padded, and the questions that reveal the difference.
International patients researching treatment in India meet dozens of websites promising free help, instant quotes and personal case managers. Some of these services are genuine. Some inflate quotes, steer patients to whichever hospital pays the biggest commission, or vanish after collecting a deposit. Nigerian, Kenyan and Bangladeshi patient communities all carry stories of both kinds.
You do not need to guess. A short checklist of verifiable questions separates honest operators from the rest, because honest answers hold up when you check them and invented ones fall apart.
We built this checklist so you can use it on anyone, including us. Our own answers are at the end. If you would rather ask us the hard questions directly, message us on WhatsApp or use the contact page.
Start with the money: who actually pays the facilitator?
Almost everything else on this list follows from this one question.
Industry reporting describes the standard model plainly: facilitators earn commissions of roughly 7.5–30% of the treatment bill from hospitals, or charge patients flat fees, and quotes from legacy brokers can carry 25–35% padding. When the hospital pays the facilitator, the service is “free” the way a casino drink is free: the cost sits inside your bill, and the facilitator has a reason to steer you toward whoever pays most.
Ask, in writing: “Who pays you for my case, and how much?”
There are only three honest answers: the patient pays a published fee; the hospital pays a disclosed commission; or some disclosed mix. Any answer that dodges the number, such as “our service is completely free for you”, is itself the answer.
The verification checklist
1. Their fee model is published, in numbers, before you commit
Look for figures on the website, not “affordable” and not “contact us”. A facilitator confident in its fee model publishes it. If the fees are hidden, ask why.
2. The hospital quote is itemized, on hospital letterhead
A real quote lists room category and daily rate, surgeon and anaesthesia fees, implant or drug costs, investigations, and the number of hospital days assumed. It arrives on the hospital’s letterhead with the hospital’s contact details, not retyped into the facilitator’s own PDF. Lump-sum “package” numbers with no breakdown are where padding hides.
3. The quote survives a direct call to the hospital
This is the test padding cannot pass. Contact the hospital’s international billing desk yourself and confirm the figures. A legitimate facilitator will encourage this and give you the contact. Treat reluctance as information.
4. The facilitator’s fee is invoiced separately from the hospital bill
If you cannot see where the facilitator’s income ends and the hospital’s charges begin, you cannot audit either. Separate invoices mean every rupee has a name on it.
5. There is a real legal entity behind the website
Look for a registered company name, a physical address, and a working phone number that a human answers. Cross-check the entity name against official company registries; India’s corporate registry is searchable online. A website with only a contact form and a Gmail address is not accountable to anyone.
6. You get a written service agreement with a refund policy
The agreement should say what is included, what is not, what happens if you cancel, and what happens if the hospital’s plan changes after admission. Verbal assurances on WhatsApp are not a contract. Ours is published: see our fees page for crediting, milestone and refund rules.
7. You speak to the treating specialist before you travel
Any facilitator with a real hospital relationship can arrange a teleconsultation, before you book flights, with the specialist who would treat you. If a “case manager” deflects every request to speak to a doctor, ask what is being managed.
8. Medical records are handled through a secure channel
Your reports should move through access-controlled links rather than around an open group chat, and nobody should demand the whole file before telling you anything useful. A facilitator that collects your entire medical file and passport copy before giving you any pricing signal is holding leverage over you.
9. Nobody is rushing you
Pressure is the oldest tell in the industry: “this price expires Friday”, “beds are almost gone”, “pay the deposit today to hold the surgeon.” Real hospitals schedule elective treatment on clinical grounds. A facilitator who manufactures urgency is selling you something.
10. Claims are specific and checkable
“We work with 500+ hospitals” and similar directory boasts are marketing rather than accountability. Ask instead for the details you can check: the named coordinator handling your case, and the hospitals proposed for your diagnosis, in writing, with reasons.
Checks that still work mid-journey
The checklist matters most before you commit, but it does not expire at the airport. If you are already inside a facilitated journey and something feels off, three checks still work:
Ask for a re-itemization. At any point, you can ask the hospital’s billing desk directly, rather than through the facilitator, for a current itemized statement of charges to date. Compare it with the quote you accepted. Legitimate differences exist (treatment plans change after admission), but they should be explainable line by line, and the explanation should come in writing.
Separate the two relationships. You are the hospital’s patient and the facilitator’s client: two different relationships with two different bills. If anyone asks you to pay hospital charges through the facilitator’s personal account, stop and verify with the hospital first. Hospitals have official payment channels and will confirm them in writing.
Renegotiate from the paperwork. Check whatever was promised (airport pickup, interpreter, follow-up calls) against the written agreement. If there is no written agreement, that is the finding.
None of this requires confrontation. It requires paperwork, which honest operators produce as a matter of course and dishonest ones cannot.
How we answer our own checklist
We publish this list because we can pass it, and because who pays us is the whole point of our model.
Who pays us: you do. We take no commissions from hospitals. Our fees are paid by you, published upfront, and itemized separately from your hospital bill.
Our published fees:
| Service | Fee |
|---|---|
| Remote consultation (teleconsult) | $50 (₹4,300) |
| Written independent second opinion | $150 (₹12,900) |
| Full journey coordination | $1,000 (₹86,000) |
INR equivalents are approximate, at about ₹86 per US dollar. The USD figure is the fee.
Every fee credits in full to the next step: the $50 consultation comes off the $150 second opinion, and the $150 second opinion comes off the $1,000 full journey fee. Crediting, milestone and refund rules are on the fees page.
The rest of the checklist: quotes we pass you are itemized on hospital letterhead, and we encourage you to verify them with the hospital’s billing desk directly. Records move through single-use secure links with access logging, never through the website contact form. You speak with the specialist before you decide anything. Because no hospital pays us, we have no reason to steer you to one hospital over another, and the comparison stays honest because nobody is bidding for your file.
Medtu Care is a medical travel facilitator. We are not a hospital, and we do not provide medical care. All medical decisions rest with you and your treating doctors. We sell an honest process, priced in the open.
Put us through the checklist. Message us on WhatsApp with the hardest question on this page, or write via the contact page. We respond within four business hours.
Sources
- Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002 — National Medical Commission. Clause 6.4.1 prohibits a physician from giving, soliciting or receiving any commission, gratuity or bonus for referring, recommending or procuring a patient, and from splitting or rebating a fee; clause 7.19 states that a physician shall not use touts or agents for procuring patients, listed in Chapter 7 as professional misconduct. Accessed 28 July 2026.
- FAQs on Telemedicine Practice Guidelines — Board of Governors in supersession of the Medical Council of India, April 2020. For every teleconsultation the practitioner must identify themselves and display their MCI or State Medical Council registration number, and that registration can be independently checked on the relevant Medical Council’s website: the basis for checklist item 7. Accessed 28 July 2026.
- The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (Act 22 of 2023, text as on 19 November 2025) — India Code. Section 8(5) requires anyone holding personal data to protect it with reasonable security safeguards, section 8(6) requires notification of a breach to the Data Protection Board and to each affected person, and section 8(7) requires erasure once the purpose is served: the statutory floor behind checklist item 8. Accessed 28 July 2026.