I just watched the following video…

Veiovis inside business

These are some great examples of how medical tourism can work well.

It’s great to see insurance companies evolving and including global options in their health plans.

Also of note, is that Veiovis has recently added New Zealand to its network.

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1. The Wider World of Global Healthcare

Medical tourism will flourish when the destination country matches the home country in terms of fit and feel, but over delivers in terms of service and patient experience, all at a significant cost reduction to the home country.

Hence destinations that share cultural similarity to the USA, speak English as the first language, are safe and politically stable, with a recognized history of providing high quality health care that is also cost efficient, will be the long term winners.

Medical tourism is disruptive technology and hence is a long term play. It is also a reasonably complex offer with the buying decision needing to be aligned to a selling cycle, both of which are unique compared to the traditional health care model.

Hence destination countries and enablers based in the USA need to build credibility and confidence in the industry and at all costs avoid trying to make a quick buck. A low cost strategy as being the sole differentiator vs the US health care system may being appealing to some of the market. However the offer needs to be far more than that.

From what the US and Canadian patients who come to New Zealand comment; excellent service, in a world class health care system which puts the patient first (patient centric) at an affordable price (and not a Hobbit or Ork in sight) certainly is different to what they usually experience when accessing health care.

Now that has universal appeal.

I recently read with interest Jennifer Wolff’s article in Good Housekeeping ‘Passport to Cheaper Healthcare’ about Medical Tourism.

Whilst I think that it is great that mainstream America is sitting up and taking notice of the medical tourism phenomenon, I find it frustrating that this article perpetuated the myth that Medical Tourism is a ‘third world’ offer only.

Comments such as:

You can have surgery for less than half the price, but only in countries where you wouldn’t drink the water.

are frustrating in that they ignore the reality that there are Medical Tourism options in first world countries.

Countries such as India, Thailand and Mexico have a large share of the ‘voice’ but also attract some harsh criticism with stories of sub-par providers who sully the whole industry. This makes it hard for the average consumer to sort the good from the bad. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great providers in these countries, but they suffer by association.

For those that don’t feel confident in this sorting process there are other options. First world Medical Tourism destinations such as New Zealand, Belgium and other Western countries take a slightly more boutique approach. While they may not shout quite as loud, they have some advantages at the forefront of which is the regulations in these societies.

Quoting Wolff’s article…

“The level of standardization we have in the U.S. doesn’t exist in most of the world,” says Anmol S. Mahal, M.D., president of the California Medical Association. “Currently, there is no good system in place to help guide people through the maze of interpreting what is good medical care abroad.”

I beg to differ. The level of standardization in the U.S. exists in most first-world countries, and there is a good system in place to guide people in their decisions, that is, by looking at countries that have a high degree of regulation and rigor, not only in healthcare, but in law, society and government in general.

Interestingly in the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index the USA ranked only 19th. Countries promoting Medical Tourism that rank higher on this index include:

1 – New Zealand
3 – Singapore
8 – Iceland
14 – Germany

Maybe the world just got a little bigger for Dr Mahal?

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1. Healthcare for the Uninsured – a third world problem in a first world nation
2. Veoivis Inside Business Video clip
3. Polar Vision and Socialized Healthcare

One of the issues in being involved in an unregulated global industry is the untruths and exaggerations that abound. While they possibly exist in many areas, medical or otherwise, the number of medical patients travelling overseas illustrates the struggle of indiviudal countries wanting recognition.

A much used quote is that in any war the first casualty is the truth seems to hold true as these countries fight for recognition and legitimacy.  The Lemmings Theory seems to be that by overstating the number of patient travellers to your facility you some how encourage more patients to visit. The more lemmings you say you treat , the more lemmings will follow.

A recent article Medical tourism statistics.Comparing Apples with apples…. hightlighted this by illustrating how some  hospitals count their  patients. It seems in some countries who indicate large numbers of medical tourists, the hospital administrators count each event as a separate patient. hence having an xray is one, the actual operation is two etc. This ends up with one patient having undergone a routine inpatient procedure as having been recorded as 15 patient episodes and (for sake of brevity) this is further shortened by marketing  to 15 patients.

Even well known global consultant agencies seem to fall for the same trick. Deloitte for example published a report in 2008- Medical tourism conumers in search of value, we hear that 400,000 medical tourists went to India and over 1.2 million medical tourists went to Thailand. Unbelivable numbers that appear, well…. unbelievable.

Until therefore there is a global agency such as the WHO that can verify overseas medical tourists numbers, patients contemplating travelling overseas for medical care should do their own research. If you want developed first world and English speaking then your choice is UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. If you want cheap well thats another story. Although there does seem to be a connection between the claim of very large  numbers of medical travelling patients and the third world. While it may be true that they treat many regional Asian patients, the actual number of North Americans who travel to Asia (or indeed anywhere else) for medical treatment , is yet to be verified.

Related posts:

1. What will make Medical Tourism grow?

Jorgensens article How Companies are Changing Healthcare Costs certainly raises some questions.

I applaud Hannaford on leading the way in giving their employees an affordable option for elective surgery. By doing this they not only managed to save themselves some pennies, save their employees many pennies, but have also called the local providers bluff in regards to pricing.

The big question is…  if a hospital can reduce its prices from 50,000 to 18,000 for a hip replacement, then where was the other 32,000 coming from in the beginning. That is one mightily hefty margin!!

You have to ask:

If they can do this for the masses who is paying for it?

What would be the cost for an uninsured patient?

Why are other large companies so slow to catch on?