President of the Medical Tourism Association ™, Renée-Marie Stephano, is in Lithuania this week to speak at the International Conference for Medical Tourism- The Future of Services in Lithuania.  Back in October at the World Medical Tourism & Global Healthcare Congress the MTA and The Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Lithuania signed an agreement to promote and develop medical tourism in the Baltic nation. Tourism management institutions, tourism and medical tourism associations and organizations, approved destination country tour operators, hotel networks, spas and healthcare facilities will come together to develop a healthcare cluster.

In addition to the agreement Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Lithuania, Daumantas Lapinskas invited Ms. Stephano to act as the event’s main speaker and present her ideas about the global clusterization process.

Lapinskas said that Lithuania is keeping pace in getting benefits from this emerging market and that the agreement gives a high potential to attract a larger audience of medical tourists to the country.

They are setting up a healthcare cluster through the support of the Ministry of Economy and Enterprise Lithuania, the export organization for the country.

The intent of the conference is to bring the stakeholders together to obtain a consensus on the product they have to offer and to identity target markets they can deliver this product to. The MTA has been brought in to make recommendations and offer our resources and support for education, certification programs and destination branding programs.

Read more about the partnership

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Cost of healthcare is what everyone everywhere is talking about. Trying to figure out the best structure and delivery for healthcare in order to make costs more affordable is the goal. A recent study by the OECD shows that the country’s healthcare status can actually have a huge impact on rising costs.

The OECD found that obesity is a major contributing factor to the healthcare status in the U.S. OECD predicts that in 2020, 75 percent of Americans will be obese. Medicare costs are rising faster than most because the number of obese seniors is significant. It’s not just obesity that is the problem is it the conditions associated with it such as, high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. According to a study conducted Medicare is spending more money each year per obese person, $149 more. In a 2009 study, it was found that obesity –related diseases account for one out of every 10 dollars spent on healthcare which comes out to about $147 million total.

Another example of healthcare status affecting healthcare costs was shown in a study by the National Institute for Health Care Reform. They analyzed the healthcare spending by American autoworkers from Chrysler, General Motors and Ford. These companies provide healthcare benefits to over 1 million people, all with access to the same healthcare benefits. The high-spending areas showed workers in worse health than those with lower-spending. This resulted in 37 percent of the variation in spending. Another third of the spending variation had to do with how much providers charge for the same service. All of these factors and more are making it impossible to pinpoint the perfect solution.

Sources:

Reuters

Washington Post

Interview with the Arab German Insurance Co. Ltd- Platinum Sponsor for Jordan’s International Medical Tourism, Wellness & Spa Congress

Established in March 1996, the Arab German Insurance Co. Ltd ( AGI) provides both General Insurance which covers the Commercial and Industrial sector; they also have specialized Personal Lines products that they are constantly developing and upgrading.

Medical insurance which represents the core area of their business is the major concern for providing their distinguished clients with the best insurance service in Jordan. That’s why they established a separate company fully owned by AGI to manage the health care insurance network.

Q: What are you expecting to gain by attending/sponsoring this conference in Jordan?

A: This international event will bring public and private medical and health institutions together with the insurance companies and will pave the way to negotiate fruitful business and partnership opportunities and discuss new international medical insurance schemes to be provided for international patients from all over the world.

The insurance industry in the global health tourism started to play a major role as the number of cash payers is decreasing in favor of medical insurance beneficiaries and insurance companies started looking for alternative destinations to provide medical insurance packages with qualitative medical services and reasonable prices especially after the global recession.

We believe that the congress taking place in Jordan, which has high ranking in the global health tourism industry will, constitute an excellent opportunity for our company to network with the major stakeholders in this industry who are participating in the congress in addition to consulting with them to find out the best medical insurance solutions could be provided for patients from all over the world

Q: Why did AIG decide to sponsor this conference at such a prominent level?

A: We are total supporters of NPO’s, and we believe hand in hand with PHA, (an organization we have the up most respect for, for its values and its respectable management in the medical community) the message of advanced health industry in Jordan will be fully executed. And I would like to take this opportunity to announce that we will continue to support PHA in future events as well.

Q: Has your company cooperated with international insurance companies offering re- insurance procedures for foreign patients especially from the U.S. and Europe?

A: Unfortunately not yet, but we are willing to cooperate with a reputable insurance company or foreign nationals to administer their health insurance in Jordan

Q: What do you think about the current medical tourism industry? How has it changed in the past few years?

A: The medical tourism industry has leaped throughout the past 10 years; the only problem I foresee is the lack of funds from the tourism association to promote Jordan as a medical tourism hub. But for sure it has revolutionized in the past ten years but not to our expectations.

Q:  Why do you think insurance companies have not mainstreamed the implementation of medical tourism?

A: To be honest, I don’t agree with that.  I really think that this will be a good opportunity for insurance companies to introduce new insurance coverage, increase the cooperation with international bodies, and introducing a new level of customer service.

Q: What are your hopes/predictions for the future?

A: If medical service providers, insurance companies, governments, and travel agencies set an action plan, each in his area, and work on that very hard, Jordan will be in the near future a choice for wellness and medical service.

Patients traveling to a country for medical care not only benefit the health care industry, but they have a pretty significant hand in boosting the economy. Patients and their companions need somewhere to stay and dine before and after the procedure.

In most cases patients will be in the foreign country for a longer period of time, since many will be spending a lot of time in their hotel room recovering, many opt for an upgrade. The average medical tourist spends anywhere from five to 12 times the amount of what a typical tourist would spend on travel costs.

The Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin realized the opportunity to combined hotel offerings packaged with medical care, aiming to save the client some money. The health-care package they created includes, flight, hotel, and connects the client with a regional hospital.

Casa Velas Hotel & Ocean Club in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, is another example of a hotel taking advantage of the nearby medical care.

The medical accommodations offered at this hotel are really above and beyond, which has brought back a number of clients.

Casa Velas joined forces with Amerimed, a network of hospitals that adhere to U.S. health-care standards. They go so far as to offer hotel/medical staff 24 hours a day for patients recovering from procedures. The hotel offers personalized diet plans for patients and they uphold high levels of discretion for patients providing a private place to recover.

So many countries are known for having amazing hotel accommodations that really know how to cater to the guest and provide a five star experience. If you already have the tourist part down why not increase your numbers by expanding to a broader audience. Make health care one more feature that the hotel offers.

http://j.mp/HotelsBoostMedTour

Known for gambling and wild weekend getaways, Las Vegas also has great healthcare potential. With an already booming tourism industry, why not incorporate that with a quick executive check up or a sleeve gastrectomy while you are there. Vegas has the tourism part down to a science, so why not recover in a place that offers so many options for entertainment? Las Vegas actually has several great healthcare facilities, the issue is, it is simply not what they are known for. Industry officials are making moves to change this perception and put their city on the map for healthcare.

“It’s unlikely Las Vegas will become a transplant or cancer treatment capital but the Southern Nevada Medical Industry Coalition says the city leads the nation in some of those other specialties”.

Las Vegas Could Attract Medical Tourists

Thank you to everyone for viewing our webinar “Medical Tourism 101″ on Slideshare.net over 4000 times!

In some cases gastric bypass surgery is cosmetic, but in the case for Jan Neufeld, an Oklahoma resident, it was to save her life. Weighing in at 350 pounds she knew she needed the surgery.  The price tag of $40,000 in her home state was more than she could afford. When a friend of hers suggested that the procedure in India was about a quarter of the cost, she began researching it.

While traveling to India for surgery scared her at first, she was more than pleased with the outcome and her new found quality of life.

She said in an article by NewsOn6.com, “There is hope. So many people say they can’t afford surgery,” Jan said. “This surgery is the best thing that’s happened to me. It’s given me my life back.”

With such so much success she spread the word to her friends and family, convincing her mother and two friends to travel to India for surgery and she has been there three times for additional touch ups!

Compare costs per country here: http://www.medicaltourism.com/en/compare-costs.html

In order to handle the influx of more than 20,000 Libyan patients coming to Jordan for treatment a committee is in the process of being formed to regulate the distribution of patients to the Kingdom’s hospitals.

This committee will be based at the Queen Alia International Airport to receive Libyan patients, conduct a preliminary diagnosis and then refer them to hospitals depending on their conditions. Some of the public hospitals will be staffed with specialized doctors to handle specific cases.

The Jordan Medical Association will provide the Kingdom’s private hospitals with a list of doctors that possess rare specialties and are willing to offer their services to public hospitals to treat the Libyan patients.

Also, there are plans to send 2,000 male Jordanian nurses to work in hospitals in Libya. In addition to helping the Libyan patients this will also provide work for some of the 3,000 nurses that are unemployed in Jordan.

http://j.mp/Helping_Lybia

Fiction- coach passengers are more likely to develop clots due to the smaller space provided, compared to first class

Fact- the majority of travelers that experience blockages have a reason prior to traveling, such as surgery, age, and previous clotting

Fiction- drinking alcoholic on a flight increases your risk

Fact- mobility constraints do raise the risk, for example; sitting in a window seat, tall passengers or those that do not move during the flight

Advice for long-distance travelers:

Do not use blood-thinning meds or aspirin, move around the cabin and maybe do some calf exercises and book an aisle seat!

Do any of our international travelers have tips of their own or experiences to share about this?

Read full article from CNN Travel