Medical tourism (patients going to a different country for either necessary or elective medical procedure) is fast becoming a worldwide, multibillion-dollar industry. Also known as global health tourism, it is said to be one of the fastest growing industries in global healthcare and in the travel industry.

The American Medical Association says an estimated 150,000 Americans received health care overseas in 2006, with almost half of the procedures being for medically necessary surgeries.

Some experts cite the growing healthcare crisis in the United States, Canada, and Europe as a major factor attracting international patients to overseas hospitals. According to the Medical Tourism Congress, many U.S. insurers, employers, and health insurance agents are looking at innovative and creative ways to reduce healthcare costs. They state that U.S. employers and insurance carriers are saving up to 90 percent off of the cost of their healthcare expenses by implementing medical tourism.

Medical Tourism magazine calls this booming trend a $20 billion industry, which continues to grow, and one that is driving the growth of many international economies. The United States market, with its motivated consumers, continues to lead the growth of medical tourism in the world.

Why people travel for treatment
For patients from highly industrialized nations, the primary reason to have medical services in less developed countries is low cost. Such cost-conscious patients choose to accept the inconvenience and uncertainties of offshore healthcare to obtain service at prices they can more comfortably afford. According to MedScape.com, a patient from the United States is likely to be a middle class adult requiring elective surgical care who has no health insurance or who has inadequate coverage. The other group pursuing medical tourism are people seeking cosmetic surgery, dental reconstruction, fertility treatment, gender reassignment procedures, and other treatments not covered by health insurance. The common feature in both groups is that their resources are adequate to purchase healthcare in low-cost medical tourism destinations but insufficient for them to comfortably have the same services in their local market.

And it’s becoming easier and more convenient.

“Now you can buy a travel package where they’ll literally handle everything for you,” says David Hancock, author of the newly published guide The Complete Medical Tourist. “They pick you up at your front door, take you to the airport, fly you in and accompany you to all clinical visits and operations. Then you’re off to a five-star hotel to recuperate for two weeks, before flying you back and getting a private car back home. And it all comes in at half of what it would be at a private hospital in the UK.”

According to Financial Times writer, Chris Taylor, there is now a cottage industry growing up around medical tourism, led by companies such as MedRetreat and Planet Hospital. Not just in the U.S., but in countries such as the UK, where lengthy waiting lists for non-emergency surgery have spurred many to look abroad.

Not just for patients and consumers – insurance providers and corporations join in
The insurance industry has become an active participant in medical tourism. According to a recent article in MedScape.com, in several U.S. states, Blue Cross Blue Shield sells insurance policies that enable or encourage patients to have expensive surgical procedures at low-cost offshore medical facilities. It also contends that several fortune 500 corporations are evaluating the feasibility of outsourcing expensive medical procedures to offshore healthcare destinations. Insurance provider networks are currently being expanded to include physicians around the globe, and it is anticipated that within a decade a majority of large employers' health plans will include offshore medical centers. (“Medical Tourism: Globalization of the Healthcare Marketplace,” MedScape.com, 2007).

Safety and accreditation
Faced with the choice of many medical institutions in diverse countries, medical tourists may find it difficult to identify well-trained physicians and modern hospitals that provide high-quality care. Some medical tourism agents, particularly those with backgrounds in healthcare, may be a helpful resource for patients in making appropriate choices. One way to assess a hospital or medical care facility’s quality is membership in accrediting agencies, as well as the particular qualifications of the physicians.

At the accreditation level, two organizations in particular, the Joint Commission International (JCI) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), are evidence of quality management and services by medical institutions across the globe. In addition to JCI and ISO accreditation, there are regional and/or country-specific regulatory agencies.

Find out more
A simple “Googling” of the term “medical tourism” will pull up hundreds of travel agents eager to book you a trip for a necessary or elective medical tourism trip. But, for our short list of agencies and helpful resources, access this issue's useful links.

Sources:
http://www.ohsonline.com
http://www.ama-assn.org
http://placidway.wordpress.com/2008/06/16/asian-healthcare-2008-medical-tourism-in-asia/
http://www.medicalnomad.com/Accreditation.jsp