I
had a big “ah ha!” recently. It came
after reviewing my notes and reflecting on what I heard and learned at the
World Medical Tourism & Global Healthcare Congress I attended in Chicago a
few weeks ago.
It was the revelation that because of medical
tourism – people traveling across borders eitherinternationally or domestically
for medical care – we can eventually expect a dramatic improvement in the
health care crisis in the U.S. and around the world!
That was a major wow – and it gives me great
optimism not only for our country but also for the spa and wellness industries
as a whole.
Bottom line, medical tourism is now creating
competition – true competition – and that is spilling over causing health care
all over the world to respond. Add to
that some of the changes in both the European and the U.S. health care systems
and we are approaching a tipping point.
Prices will come down and quality of care will go up. Here are some things I learned at the
conference that bring me to that conclusion:
The quality of hospitals and doctor’s skills
around the world is increasing so quickly that in many places it has not just
caught up with the U.S., it is now surpassing it! That is a game changer.
Patient care is more caring in many parts of
the world. Due to lower labor costs
there are more people to care for each patient in places like the Philippines,
Thailand, India, Barbados, etc. Patients get more time with their doctors,
access to more thorough testing and are taken care of from the minute time they
arrive in the foreign country until the time they leave.
The Internet is helping all of this along…the
power is now shifting into the consumer’s hands and they are looking (and
finding) places for cheaper, quicker, or better medical care.
90 different countries attended this
conference. That’s huge! It means that
90 countries are interested in medical tourism which will fuel even more
competition.
Insurance companies are beginning to embrace
medical tourism by helping their policy holders find overseas solutions. This is new.
(There were quite a few insurance companies at this conference.) The lower costs are just as attractive to
insurance companies as they are to individuals!
Businesses that are self insured are fostering
relationships with specific countries for their health care needs. Blue Lake Casino works with a medical
facility in Costa Rica for all their orthopedics issues. B & H Photo of NY has 1700 staff. 50% are Jewish so they decided to work with a
hospital in Israel for their health care needs.
Many places offer quicker service. Some countries (Canada, UK) have long waiting
lists…going abroad can solve that.
Often lower costs can be found abroad. For example, dental work (often not insured
in the U.S.) is becoming as good as or better in Mexico than in the U.S. at a fraction of the cost.
One can get access to new cutting edge medical
options that may not be available in one’s home country.
Example:
stem cell medicine which is growing very fast.
Transparency is greater abroad. As one speaker
explained – just try finding out the cost of a colonoscopy here in the
U.S. It’s almost impossible because of
the various entities involved in that procedure. You can easily get an all inclusive
colonoscopy price quote in from many countries.
Executive physicals are popular. One research
report found that 45% of medical tourists are interested in Executive
Physicals, 33% interested in Dental
procedures, with lower percentages for oncology, orthopedics and cosmetic
surgery. The physicals are more
comprehensive and cheaper. There is
more time to discuss results with a doctor and some tests aren’t available
anywhere else.
Areas of specialties are arising both
domestically and internationally.
Brazil is known for plastic surgery, Korea is known for living donor
liver transplantation and robotic surgery,
and Oklahoma is positioning itself as the medical tourism destination
for oncology care in the U.S.
Missouri’s Hospital Association found that domestic medical travel
created over 3,000 jobs and generated $124 million in non-medical travel
expenditures in 2009.
Hospitals are doing deals and getting
creative. Lowe’s just struck a deal with Cleveland Clinic making it the first
time a national company selected one specialist hospital. Mayo Clinic is
planning to build a destination Medical Community as they now realize that if they don’t get involved
with people post stay at Mayo, it will affect future customers.
A company in Boston that talked about sending
their employees to Thailand for orthopedic procedures found that a hospital in
Boston was willing to match the price.
The last session of the conference really hit
home – it was called “Meet the Medical Tourist.” There were several people who had taken trips
abroad for medical care sharing their experiences.
The most memorable was the couple from London
who had not been able to get pregnant despite 3 cycles of IVF. They decided to try a well known fertility
clinic in Barbados that had a very high success rate. The baby on their lap
gave away the result.
Of most interest to me was the mother’s
summary. In Barbados she had a more
thorough evaluation, much greater interaction with the doctor and a more
extensive preparation strategy. They
took time to improve odds by monitoring aspects of her physiology that the
doctors in London didn’t seem to have time or interest in doing.
I think medical tourism is something the spa
and wellness industry should wholeheartedly support. Why?
We benefit directly because medical tourists
often travel with a companion and sometimes an entourage. Once someone has experienced a country –
whether for a medical procedure or a spa vacation – it is reasonable to assume
that they will feel more comfortable selecting it for the other.
According to the GSS research, wellness
tourism ($106B) is already twice the size of medical tourism ($50B). Medical Tourism doesn’t have a lot of repeat
business – wellness tourism does.
By supporting medical tourism, we will
encourage people to think about their health when traveling.
Medical Tourism leads to Wellness
Tourism. And Wellness Tourism leads to
Medical tourism. And all of it will be a
positive for the health care situation in the future.
I feel like kicking up my heels.
Susie Ellis
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