- A quote-comparison site is usually a lead broker. Your form is the product; clinics are the customers; the typical price of you is $30 to $150.
- The same lead is often sold to several buyers, which is why the messages arrive in a burst and all sound alike.
- The clinic that paid for your name has to recover it. It does that in your quote, in the facilitator line, or in the lines it leaves out.
- Sites that publish prices without a form and put one person's name on the quote are the opposite model. That is the model here.
There is nothing illegal about selling a sales lead. Insurance, mortgages, and solar panels have run on it for twenty years. What is unusual about medical tourism is that the lead is a person about to have surgery in another country, the buyer is a clinic, and the person has no idea a transaction just happened. This article explains the transaction at the pattern level. No company names, because the model is the point, not any one operator.
What the form actually does
The comparison site collects your name, email, phone, procedure, and a country of interest. It may show you a price range, which is a median pasted on to keep you typing. Then it does one of three things with the record: sells it once to a single clinic at a fixed price; sells it non-exclusively to several clinics at a lower price each; or auctions it in real time to the highest bidder. The prices vary by procedure and country, but the pattern is consistent and the numbers people in the industry quote sit roughly where you would expect for a purchase worth several thousand dollars.
What a medical tourism lead typically sells for
Typical ranges discussed in performance-marketing forums and rate cards for pay-per-lead medical tourism placements. Non-exclusive leads sell for less per buyer but to more buyers. Not a quote for any specific platform.
Why nine messages, and why they all sound the same
Non-exclusive sale is the most common model because it pays the broker several times for one form. Five to twelve buyers each receive the same record within minutes, and each has a sales agent, often outsourced, whose job is to open WhatsApp first. The messages are templated because the agents are working the same lead sheet every day. None of them have seen your photos or your medical history, which is why every one of them can only quote you the same median the aggregator already showed you. The instant-quote article explains why a real quote needs more than that.
Where the $100 goes
The clinic that bought your name has a cost of acquisition before it has spoken to you. If it buys a hundred leads at $100 and converts five, each patient it books cost $2,000 to acquire. That money comes from somewhere, and it comes from you, in one of three ways.
The facilitator-markup article shows how to find it in each case. The short version: ask for an itemized quote and ask the clinic, in writing, whether the surgeon’s fee on it is the surgeon’s direct fee.
The tell in the first message
What you do with the nine threads
You do not have to abandon them. Some of the clinics that bought your lead are good; they are just paying a broker to find you. Reply to all of them with the same message: the surgeon’s name, the anesthesiologist’s name, the facility’s habilitación level, and an itemized quote in USD and COP after they have seen your photos. The threads that go quiet were never going to send a quote. The ones that answer with two names you can check in ReTHUS are worth a conversation. Then compare line items, not totals, because a lower total with a missing anesthesiologist is not lower.
The opposite model
The alternative to a lead broker is a site that publishes its ranges without a form, so the median is not bait, and puts one person’s name on every quote, so there is no agent between you and the surgeon. That is how this site works: the ranges are public, the estimator is free, your form goes to one inbox, and Andy is paid by the clinic he coordinates with, never by marking up your price. You can verify every surgeon he names in ReTHUS before you spend a dollar. The network hub, Colombia Medical, works the same way for dental, hair, eyes, and fertility.
Want a real quote for this?
Message Andy with your photos, history, and dates. You get a named surgeon, a named facility, and an itemized USD price you can verify. Typical ranges here are ranges until a surgeon prices your case.
Questions people ask
What is a medical tourism lead?
Your contact details and procedure interest, captured by a form and sold to one or more clinics. Typical prices run $20 to $250 depending on the procedure, with cosmetic, bariatric, and fertility inquiries at the high end.
Why did I get so many WhatsApp messages after one form?
The form was sold non-exclusively to several clinics at once, each with a sales agent whose job is to reach you first. The messages sound alike because they are templated and none of the agents have seen your case.
Do clinics pass lead costs on to patients?
They have to recover them somewhere. It shows up as a visible coordination fee, as an inflated all-inclusive price with no breakdown, or as lines quietly removed to hit a competitive total. Ask for an itemized quote to see which.
Are quote comparison sites for surgery abroad scams?
Not usually illegal, but often not what they appear. Most are lead brokers rather than comparison tools. The price ranges they show are medians used to keep you typing, not quotes.
How do I get a real quote instead?
Send photos, history, and dates to a surgeon’s office directly or through a coordinator who names the surgeon. Ask for the surgeon’s name, the anesthesiologist’s name, the facility license, and an itemized quote in USD and COP.
How is Andy paid?
By the clinic he coordinates with, as a referral arrangement, never by marking up the patient price. The surgeon’s fee on a quote from this site is the surgeon’s direct fee, and every name on it is verifiable in ReTHUS.
Have a real quote in front of you?
Stop translating it in your head. Put the document against the same cost, recovery, payment and travel categories, then take the unanswered questions back to the provider.
Break down my quote