Future of Medical Tourism in USA
December 14, 2008
Medical tourism will flourish in US in the coming years, though there will be short-term setback due to events like Mumbai Terrorism and Thailand political crisis. Following are top reasons why people from US will travel to other countries to get medical treatments. Even if the president elect Obama and his US Health and Human Services secretary Tom Daschle comes up with Universal Health care system for US people, still it will not slow-down US citizen crossing boarders to get cheap but quality medical treatment.
1. Even though US spend more on health care than any other developed nation, more than 47 million Americans are not insured. Though this will significantly change if US gets universal health care system, employers and individuals will still pay higher cost in US for same medical services compared to countries like Mexico, India, China, Thailand, Singapore, etc. Following are some of the cost comparison between US and other countries:
- For Cardiac surgery Apollo Hospital,India charges $4,000, US hospitals charge $30,000
- For Hip replacement, Hospitals in Argentina, Singapore, Thailand charge $12,000, US hospitals charge $40,000
- Rhinoplasty procedure Costs $850 in India, US hospitals charge $4,500
2. Though there were several qualified physicians and well equipped hospitals existed in developing countries for a long time, medical tourism trend picked up in the past few years only. Now with the growth of Internet and other technologies like medical tourism blogs, and news providing great opportunity for US patients to learn about foreign hospitals and patient’s personal experiences on medical tourism, the trend will accelerate even more in US.
3. Receiving safe and quality medical care is the primary concern for anyone either they go to hospitals in US or in offshore locations. Organizations like Joint Commission International (JCI), The International Society for Quality in Health Care Hospital (ISQUA), National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) provides accreditation on quality and medical ethics for the hospitals in offshore locations. This helps US patients in understanding following important facts about the hospitals and the doctors located in developing countries:
- How well they Understand US people and their culture
- Proper facilities to handle inpatient and outpatient care
- Physicians having required training and certifications
- Patient to Doctors ratio
Now based on real facts US patients can make informed decisions on their medical treatments in foreign hospitals.
4. Many US hospitals (mostly academic medical centers, AMC) have started collaborating with best hospitals located in offshore locations to support US patients who seek medical tourism. This gives confidence to US patients and also for employers who provide medical insurance to their employees that the medical treatment given in foreign hospitals is comparable to US hospitals.
5. Many people in US worry that patients who get medical treatments in cheaper countries will not get proper follow-up medical care after they return back to US. Now overseas providers hand-off all the medical documents to providers in US to perform follow-up medical care once they return back to US. Typically doctors in US are hesitant to take patients from unknown providers, now with the growth of onshore and offshore medical provider partnerships US patients will have more confident to travel to foreign countries and they are assured that they’ll get proper follow-up medical care once they return back to US.
6. Medical tourism facilitators are companies that help patients to travel to offshore locations for medical treatments. In US for the past few years companies like MedRetreat, HealthplaceBenefit, PlanetHospital are started providing services to US patients helping in choosing country, hospital, travel, lodging, etc. These medical tourism facilitators have experience and knowledge in medical tourism process and their presence in US have significantly increased US patients travel to lower cost countries for medical treatments.
7. Currently none of the medical insurance companies in US include foreign medical providers in their network. Even though medical tourism offers significant cost savings to US patients if anything goes wrong in the medical procedure, then the patient has to fight with the legal system in foreign country. This can be difficult and may not even possible once the patient returns back to US. Due to liabilities issues none of the insurance companies and US employers embrace medical tourism coverage in their programs. However as the cost of medical coverage increases in US and as more companies start medical tourism facilitator services, health insurance companies and employers will start including medical tourism coverage in their plans.
Due to the reasons mentioned above, US patients traveling to foregin countries for medical treatments will grow from 750K to six million by the year 2010.
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[...] Read more from the original source: Future of Medical Tourism in USA | Outsource Portfolio [...]
Future of Medical Tourism in USA…
Medical tourism will flourish in US in the coming years, though there will be short-term setback due to events like Mumbai Terrorism and Thailand political crisis. Following are top reasons why people from US will travel to other countries to get medic…
Future of Medical Tourism in USA…
Medical tourism will flourish in US in the coming years, though there will be short-term setback due to events like Mumbai Terrorism and Thailand political crisis. Following are top reasons why people from US will travel to other countries to get medic…
Future of Medical Tourism in USA…
Medical tourism will flourish in US in the coming years, though there will be short-term setback due to events like Mumbai Terrorism and Thailand political crisis. Following are top reasons why people from US will travel to other countries to get medic…
Future of Medical Tourism in USA…
Medical tourism will flourish in US in the coming years, though there will be short-term setback due to events like Mumbai Terrorism and Thailand political crisis. Following are top reasons why people from US will travel to other countries to get medic…
Future of Medical Tourism in USA…
Medical tourism will flourish in US in the coming years, though there will be short-term setback due to events like Mumbai Terrorism and Thailand political crisis. Following are top reasons why people from US will travel to other countries to get medic…
Hi,
Nice blog, but you left one item in your list, Alternative medicine like acupuncture, herbal medicine has been growing in US for the past couple of years, and I think this trend will accelerate in the coming years. For this, Americans will travel to countries like China and India.
With the recent Mumbai attacks, I do not think people from US travel to India for their medical treatments. In addition, it takes more than 24 hours to travel from US to India, China, etc and other legal issues; I do not think US patients are ready for medical tourism. May be they can go to Canada and Mexico but not to Asian countries.
HI Mani,
Good information about medical tourism, with the cost escalating for medical procedures in US, people do not have a choice but to travel to different countries for their medical treatments. But I don’t think traveling to Asian countries will increase any time soon due to reasons like travel time, accommodation, language etc.
-Pette
Medical tourism involves not only sending people to other countries, but also sending patient’s medical records to other countries for analysis also part of medical tourism. Patient’s MRI, CT scan, and X-Ray are digitized send to other countries for interpretation and analysis
[...] the least. Nonetheless, a WebMD report dubs this phenomenon “reproductive tourism” (Similar to Medical Tourism) of India and reveals that surrogacy costs about $12,000 in India, including all medical expenses [...]
Another motivator for medical travel is to have procedures done that either aren’t approved in the U.S. like two-level cervical disk replacement (whereas only single-level is approved in the US) or procedures that were just recently approved (like Hip Resurfacing – approved in the US only in 2006) where US surgeons don’t have anywhere near the experience of their counterparts in certain countries. Visit WorldMed Assist for more information.
Great post, it’s amazing how much healthcare does cost in the US when people can easily travel abroad to have the same surgery performed for far less.
[...] Issues:Some knowledge work like Medicine, Medical tourism, Law, and Accounting limits the scope of services that can be outsourced to other countries. The [...]
nice article, i want some more on medical tourism
Europe has caught on to the Medical Tourism trend long ago. Therefore, with Healthcare reform in the U.S. people will still be looking for ways to save or avoid the waiting lists.
MedBirds offers affordable access to world-class medical treatment at internationally acclaimed hospitals in Bangkok, Thailand.
The new health care bill could have an impact on the number of people seeking medical care out of country, but it will have less of an impact on dental tourism since dental has most always been and will continue to be out of pocket for high end procedures like dental implants.
I agree with the last few posters. The recent health care forms should have positive effects on the growth of medical tourism industry in the U.S. We looked at healthcare systems in German, the U.K, and Canada. Europea countries are definitely ahead of the curve…… but they have also had public health care for much longer.
Medical tourism will flourish in US in the coming years, though there will be short-term setback due to events like Mumbai Terrorism and Thailand political crisis
the least. Nonetheless, a WebMD report dubs this phenomenon
Medical Health Blog
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kathy
Kathy, do you think medical tourists from the States will change their preferences and consider traveling to clinics located closer? For example, will American rather choose clinics in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Colombia?
It is evident that there will be instability because the legislation will not take effect until 2014. The struggle to modify, change, or implement the legislation will also bring great uncertainty. Each of the actors will try to solidify their own position and influence over the administrative structure. The struggle is the basic element that will lead to the volatility.
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johnsmith
Leading Medication
The International Society for Quality in Health Care Hospital (ISQUA), National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) provides accreditation on quality and medical ethics for the hospitals in offshore locations.
I think medical tourism is looking pretty good in America, considering all the difficulties posed for Obama’s reform, which who knows to what extent will actually be implemented.
In addition, terrorism exists all over the world – and I do not believe this is a real factor taken in to consideration by the patients.
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this is an excellent review which has been posted
looking to start medical tourism in india