Medical Tourism: A MBA Healthcare Tutorial

Medical Tourism:

A MBA Healthcare Tutorial

Medical tourism I thought involved black market dark alley surgeries and stolen organs. But apparently my Hollywood based assumptions were for the most part fictional. In fact Medical tourism in the medical world is becoming more and more appealing to highly respected physicians in the United States and motivated patients. I asked myself WHY?

1.      Why are patients choosing to leave the United States where we have the best and most well trained doctors to go to other countries to have procedures completed?

2.      Who are the doctors completing these procedures and what are their credentials?

3.      What procedures are available in other countries?

4.      What are the risks involved in leaving the United States to have a procedure done in another country?

1. a. One of the reasons people have begun to travel for medical procedures is due to the high cost of medical care and inaccessibility to comprehensive care. Patients are not as they were in the past, traveling for non-elective surgeries such as plastic surgery, but patients are now traveling for non-elective procedures such as hip surgery, heart surgery and even brain surgery.

    b. Also in conjunction with the lower costs, the patients are often getting the same care with the great physicians but in a different country.

(The costs are lower due to lower wages and less structured or demanding health coverage and governmental restrictions, these add to absorbent costs. There are also lower costs due to lower malpractice insurance costs for physicians who work in developing countries.)

2. The doctors that are completing procedures may have been trained in the United States or any other country that offers medical training. When traveling abroad to receive medical treatment it is explicitly important to DO YOUR RESEARCH! There are plenty of qualified doctors who work outside of the United States but as a patient going into a new situation it is important to familiarize one’s self the countries standards of care as well as the doctor’s certifications and training. Familiarizing yourself with the types of surgeries and the number of surgeries they have done is also a good indicator of the qualifications of the physician.

3. There are a lot of procedures offered in other countries the more common surgeries are those that are not covered by medical insurance in the United States. Such as stem cell procedures, weight loss, spinal surgery, cancer surgery/treatments or any alternative type treatments that the United States has not yet accepted as appropriate treatments meaning they are still often considered ‘experimental’.

4.  There are risks when getting medical treatment anywhere. However medical tourism to some can add a bit of extra anxiety since a person is going to a new place and seeing a physician that they have usually never met before. While medical tourism can be a wonderful option for many to receive cutting edge treatments and/or lower cost medical care it is of the utmost importance to do research and feel comfortable with the country, hospital, and physician before receiving any procedure.

 As we become more developed medically across the globe we have opportunities to discover what options and discoveries are being made. As a MBA healthcare student at Baylor University understanding how healthcare is spreading around the world is fascinating and leaves a lot to be learned and investigated.