The Problem of Rising Healthcare Costs and Spending
Kant Patel, Mark Rushefsky in Healthcare Politics and Policy in America, 2019
One can see how people faced with high healthcare costs dealt with it in two ways. One is medical tourism. Medical tourism occurs when someone decides to go to another country for medical treatment. While this is not a widespread phenomenon, it does exist. There is a medical tourism association. There are a number of countries where people in the US go for medical care. These include Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Malaysia, and Thailand, among others (“Save Thousands as a Medical Tourist in These Five Countries” 2016). In 2016, a coronary bypass surgery would cost $88,000 in the United States, but only $31,500 in Costa Rica (“Save Thousands as a Medical Tourist in These Five Countries” 2016). Of course, this is not for everyone and certainly not for every, even most, conditions. Care must be taken to ensure that the medical procedures are of high quality. The ability to come up with the funds for this, often not covered by insurance, would preclude medical tourism as an option.
Health Communication: Insights for Quality Hospitality Bridging Healthcare (H2H) Delivery in Medical Tourism
Frederick J. DeMicco, Shirley Weis in Medical Tourism and Wellness, 2017
Medical tourism is a distinct type of tourism during which a person travels to gain access to medical treatments and services, thus becoming a patient. Some have argued that the concept of medical tourism may be better presented as medical travel placing the emphasis on “travel,” specifically for medical purposes. The semantic implications for this distinction are beyond the scope of this chapter. Unlike medical tourism, when a passenger travels to a spa, resort, hot spring, or healing retreat they are participating in what is known as “health tourism,” “wellness tourism,” or “spa tourism” (Carrera & Bridges, 2006; Kaspar, 1990). This distinction between medical and health tourism is rarely made in literature and the terms are often used interchangeably in mass media; however, the term “medical tourism” is most germane to travel involving diagnostic testing and medical procedures within the scope of biomedicine. In this chapter when referring to travel to access elective or obligatory medical services, we will use the term “medical tourism”; in doing so we recognize this process involves both the biomedical and tourism industries.
Approaching global health as a learner
Andrew D. Pinto, Ross E.G. Upshur in An Introduction to Global Health Ethics, 2013
Bishop and Litch (2000) highlight the risk of medical tourism, defined as ‘travel to a developing region with a brief opportunity to practice medicine on local community members’ (Bishop and Litch 2000: 1017). They ask: ‘If as a doctor you cannot resist the lure of medical tourism and insist on the casual or opportunistic treating of local residents, consider whether you are treating the patient for your own good or for theirs, and whether your actions may actually do more harm than good’ (Bishop and Litch 2000: 1017). Medical tourism can undermine existing health care structures and cause unexpected harm, and this is true for all health professionals. Many learners find themselves in clinical situations with little supervision, making decisions that they are inadequately qualified to make. Shah and Wu (2008) describe an elective student's realization that he may have sent a child home with a life-threatening condition because of his junior level of training. This same trainee described stories of his colleagues performing unsupervised procedures far beyond their level of expertise while on international electives. Many international experiences involve trainees from resource-rich countries traveling to countries and institutions in the global South, with no remuneration to the host institution. These students may also take precious teaching time from local trainees. Other risks for learners who are ill-prepared include culture shock, missed learning opportunities, inappropriate levels of responsibility and a lack of cultural sensitivity, which could potentially cause harm in the host community (Shah and Wu 2008).
In search a medical tourism marketing pattern in Iran: The case of cultural sensitivities
Published in International Journal of Healthcare Management, 2021
Fatemeh Najafipour Moghadam, Irvan Masoudi Asl, Somayeh Hessam, Mahmoud Mahmoudi Farahani
Tourism produces positive effects on the economy, society, culture, and environment including its contribution to GDP, improvements to infrastructure, the protection and renaissance of culture and increases in environmental awareness [1]. Medical Tourism has been favoured by health care providers in other countries around the world trying to attract and accommodate medical travellers. As a result, there has been a growing concern for the creation of professional standards to protect the quality and safety of patient care and the types of business opportunities that are available in this new industry [2]. As far as supply factors are concerned, hospital accreditation, geographical distance, and cultural familiarity emerge as important determinants of destination country selection in the literature by patients; moreover, geographically and culturally related issues are often analyzed in conjunction with other factors that affect international medical tourism. Although the nature of marketing of tourism services is different from those of other services such as banking or transportation, all the P10 items of McCarthy (1975) including product, price, location/distribution and promotion, individuals, physical evidence and processes, participation, personalization, can be extended to the health tourism industry [3].
Medical tourism globe-trotting: Features, impacts, and risks
Published in International Journal of Healthcare Management, 2020
With many advantages for patients and states that bring this possibility of traveling to get the medical care, medical tourism carries many negative consequences that affect the individual and public system as a whole. Currently, there is no internationally accepted official definition of medical tourism. Due to the lack of agreed definitions, there are also lack of databases that record the total number of patients traveling abroad, the procedures they undergo and the outcome of the same [5]. However, it is estimated that medical tourism makes 2% of total world tourism and about 4% of all hospital admissions in the world [1]. As there is no systematic monitoring of this phenomenon, it is impossible to get statistical data that would allow comparison of the quality of implementation services of medical tourism between countries and institutions. The existence of such data would enable the creation of international standards and better-informing patients, in order to protect them and/or health systems of countries from which they are leaving, as well as those to whom they come for treatment [3]. So, more research on given topic is required in order to cover existing gaps in the research evidence [6].
The creation of a medical tourist destination: Exploring determinants of perception
Published in International Journal of Healthcare Management, 2021
The term medical tourism or healthcare tourism is not a novelty in the health care industry and or even tourism industry. Rising cost for medical treatment in the home country has forced many patients to travel to other countries to seek medical treatment. The Indian government is assertively promoting India as a global healthcare destination. It also provides links to organizations operating in the healthcare industry. Emerging as one of the lowest-cost and higher-quality medical tourism destinations, it offers a wide variety of procedures at about one-tenth expenditure as compared to similar procedures in the United States of America. As per data made available by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, there is 45% growth in the number of medical visas issued by India since 2016. Around 1.78 lakh medical visas were issued in 2016, which includes visas issued for follow up treatment. In 2015, 1.22 lakh medical visas were issued in India. Prominent amongst patients visiting India for medical aid are persons from the Middle East, Africa, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Maldives and Pakistan. The total number of patients coming to India for treatment in the year 2017 was 4.95 lakh, as revealed by K.J. Alphons (Travel and Tourism Minister, India).
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