Turn Stumbling Blocks to Stepping Stones in Medical Tourism
Research and actionable intelligence is at the core of any industry. Without it, no industry players can make informed or intelligent decisions. It holds back growth and opportunity. Without it, there is no transparency and no one knows what is really happening in international healthcare.
What’s with the “Gloomsday” Files?
We all have been waiting for some updated credible numbers and statistics to come to light. Credible sources such as McKinsey, Deloitte and Ernst and Young have left us less than satisfied as statistics from their reports fade quickly in the distance. It’s injurious that the research reports from experienced organizations such as these have suffered from the complexity of the medical tourism industry and lack of authenticated information.
To add insult to injury, biased (perhaps vindictive) and financially motivated (perhaps financially distressed) freelancers writers, so called experts and bloggers conduct “surveys” reportedly holding the only golden ticket of knowledge of industry trends and purported conclusions.
The latest pontification from a bystander concludes that the numbers of U.S. patients inbound to the U.S. is the same as the numbers outbound, which is a stab in the back of medical tourism. It further identifies cosmetic and dental treatment as the largest procedures sought. Well, no kidding. Not news to anyone that baby boomers are the largest demographic of people living longer and wanting to look better and therefore feel better for the rest of their lives.
In the U.S., the hospitals treating international patients have their own definition of what international patients are, much like the rest of the world. And never do those definitions meet. In fact, a coalition of over 120 academic medical centers in the U.S. has been standardizing this definition and gathering statistics from member hospitals for several years now with no publishable numbers to boast of. That being said, no survey from overseas bloggers would ever contain credible data as to inbound or outbound care when the US hospitals as a group have not reported these numbers.
Other industry pundits have taken a turn for the worse in their own businesses and bring the dark rain upon the industry as a whole. Everyone knows that medical tourism is both a regional and global industry for the very same reasons. Patients are searching for value. The value proposition consists of better quality, affordability, accessibility, availability plus the perception of the destination for tourism. This means if it is desirable, safe and provides value, it is open for consideration. Surely some people may choose to go to a destination closer rather than further away, however, opportunity waits in many markets as a long term strategic marketing approach. The groundwork laid today will be harvestable in the future. Is the goal of your facility to have a regional brand or an international one? Diversity and smart investment over a long term period of time can assure both.
Wouldn’t it be wise to bury the “gloomsday” files into the “rubbish” files along with the rest of the negativity if the industry is to grow? Wouldn’t it be fruitful to do something productive for a change – add solid stepping stones instead of creating stumbling blocks in the growth of the Medical Tourism Industry?
U.S. Healthcare Market Potential
It is also interesting to note that the U.S. healthcare market is extraordinarily developing in its education process about overseas healthcare opportunities. The key is education and communication. Medical tourism remains a new concept for employers and employees. The idea of traveling abroad seems seductive to employees and attractive to employers who are seeking cheaper healthcare. “American Apparel is strongly researching about it,” American Apparel benefits manager Jacqueline Madrigal said. “I think lots of employers are going to look outside the box.”
“I have employees asking me about it (medical tourism), I received letters and e-mails,” Madrigal said.
However, the medical tourism concept at first sight can appear hostile to a lot of people. In that way, according to Midwest Group on Health, President and CEO Larry Boress, employers should promote their medical tourism program and educate employees about it. “Employees don’t understand how lower care can still be high quality just by traveling,” Boress said. “But they need information and motivation.”
According to him, the biggest failures happen when the employees don’t have enough information or trust about medical tourism. That can include peers testimonials or credible sources of information.
Global Benefits Underserved
Global Benefits is another underserved area for consideration. “From our client work, we are not seeing many domestic carriers cater to medical tourism. What we are seeing are international insurance companies embrace medical tourism as a way to add yet another service in their portfolio of products. Most insurers are targeting high net worth clients with packages that provide for and cover part or in whole, needed medical procedures outside their country of residence,” said David Bryan, president of the Global Benefits Association.
It is clear there is much road to be paved through these international insurance fields which provides ample opportunity for all involved and certainly provides opportunity for investment and growth. In the end, transparency in terms of quality, pricing, education and communication are the keys to a solid foundation in the international healthcare arena. For this reason MTA combines its annual World Medical Tourism & Global Healthcare Congress with the Global Benefits Association’s annual event. The overlap provides opportunity to tie the internationalization of healthcare of today with the global benefits programs of the future.
There are a lot of changes going on and new initiatives being put into place all in search of finding the best way to implement this concept of traveling for medical care. Conferences are being held, facilities are being built, deals are being made, target markets are getting defined and countries/regions are combining forces with hospitals, tourism boards and governments and branding themselves as a destination for healthcare, it is no more a standalone hospital promoting how great their dental/cosmetic procedures are.
Hospitals are not throwing out a “wide net” and expecting to just bring in patients. They realize it will take time and intelligent marketing to really see results in patient flow and revenue. The generalization of the industry may have been a thing of the past, but now defining a target market seems to be the best idea.
It is really great to be a part of a progressive industry which ties together so many aspects of healthcare and benefits. This industry has already shown great results in terms of more PPP activities and improvement of quality healthcare services across the globe. The growth of Medical Tourism will only bring positive results from many sectors including healthcare, travel, tourism, support industry and insurance sector. Some “experts” say that insurers are not interested in medical tourism. It is not only unqualified observation; it’s also like stabbing the back of medical tourism growth. In reality, such blanket remarks demonstrates the difference between those who are actively a part of building the industry on a solid foundations and those who sit behind the crumbling walls filling their moats with dirty water.
Dear experts, wake up, open your eyes and accomplish something of value, whether it is from a B-B or B-C level. You all have your respective roles essential to this building process. In the end, it is all about the patient and customer experience. For those who use solid stepping stones, I commend you for your hard work and achievements, future is with you. For the peanut gallery, we hope you will be able to jump over your own stumbling blocks, and if you can’t here is the suggestion: at least turn stumbling blocks to stepping stones.
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Renée-Marie Stephano is a Founder and the President of the Medical Tourism Association, also known as MTA, which is the first association in the medical tourism industry with an active membership base. MTA is an international non-profit trade association based upon three underlying tenets: transparency in the quality and pricing of healthcare, education and communication. Ms. Stephano also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Medical Tourism Magazine, Health Tourism Magazine, and the Healthcare Development Magazine. |  |
Renee,
Thanks for such an insightful article. You definitely raise an important point around the role of payers (insurers) in the medical tourism industry. It is a wait and watch game to see who takes the lead in actively supporting Medical Tourism – will it be the domestic insurance companies working to reduce costs for the same treatments or will it be the international insurance companies which lead the way.
What will determine the leader will be the rules and regulations which are yet to be established. If the US government establishes laws against domestic insurance companies actively promoting medical tourism at the cost of domestic healthcare industry then international insurance companies will be the de-facto leaders.
Interesting times indeed…
Neet Yamparala
Founder, Medical Tourism Business Network
helping your medical tourism business succeed…
Dear Renee, Excellent article, It is really great to be a part of a progressive industry which ties together so many aspects of healthcare and benefit. I think if every one contribute something of value, we will accomplish a lot. there is a lot of negative publication by many experts so this is really wake up call for all of them.
Maria J
Coordinator at DrPrem.com
Hi Renee, I loved what you have said, and I have a project that gets a lot of hoorays!!! I look for investors for my Medical/wellness/spa Tourism Hotel and it is the same, everyone is waiting for someone to take the first step. I believe in educating the employees first and then pass the education to the guests. I believe in Medical Tourism and I also think it is time we introduce medical tourism to the US. I am the CEO of Revivify3 and I plan to be one of the facilities to introduce full Medical tourism to the US.
Keep the information coming because medical tourism is in its infancy and it is time to organize the Industry so all can benefit.
Tena Lyons-Wagner
CEO-Revivify3 medical/wellness Tourism Hotel
The negative info and “gloomsday files” being put out recently by MTF’s, pundits, bystanders, free-lance writers, bloggers and other experts DOES need to be taken into consideration. The fact that there is a plethora of it lately should serve to alert those who would promote Medical Tourism. Consider it all as a “Call to Arms” as it were.
It’s pretty simple… we are all sitting here, talking amongst ourselves as players in the MT industry, NOT CONSUMERS. WE can talk negatively or positively all we like amongst ourselves yet what REALLY needs attention is the consumers of the industry. According to Renee’s article, Boress states: “…(Patients) need information and motivation…failures happen when the (patients) don’t have enough information or trust about medical tourism.”
Who CARES what we think in the end? Aren’t we here to service the consumers of the industry, be it employers, insurance companies, individual patients themselves…. Renee said it when she echoes what I have said that it is all about “the patient and the customer experience!”… There simply is NO future for Medical Tourism if we cannot, as a united industry, determine and provide what they (they patients) need to TRUST us.
I won’t say that insurance companies aren’t interested at all because obviously the lure of spending less money for procedures and helping their bottom line is huge! However, they DO recognize that no matter how interested THEY are, if they/we cannot convince the patient AND … and this is a big “AND,” … AND show that a consistent, duplicatable and proven system exists to keep post-op complications to a minimum, INSURING their savings, their interest wanes, considerably.
I believe that all this negativity is serving to show that this young, rogue industry NEEDS stepping stones! While we serve to glorify hospitals and their “international accreditations” as well as our good doctors and surgeons, we need to keep our Mission Statements to providing value, service and advocacy to the PATIENT. If we cannot make the patient happy and provide them with reasons to trust us, which are the “stumbling blocks” that Renee addresses, the life of “medical tourism facilitating” by MTFs will be short lived. The future belongs to those that hold these keys.
Christie, you are correct, we have always discussed the patient experience as being the most important aspect of this industry and I certainly know this is one major reason you have been so successful. Patient experience is based in part upon the quality of the services, good medical outcomes and good value for the patient. For each patient there are different factors which will weigh heavier in their decision making process. In the end, the value proposition and delivery must be completely to their satisfaction. We can take the words of people in the industry – good and bad – in an effort to improve upon this patient experience. This is the crux of the ability for growth.
We need to take steps to do it through training, education, sharing of data, reassessment and development. There is little productivity offered in badmouthing or discrediting people or organizations. Whether numbers sound better because they have been paid for or whether someone is perceived to be an expert is irrelevant. Evident biases and obvious personal opinions interjected prior to any comment inevitably discredits what is attempted to be offered anyway and certainly does not provide what is needed for us as professionals to build sustainable business models. I believe this is what most of us are looking to achieve?
There are experts in every part of the chain of service. Professionalism is expected at all stops along the patient management process. And then there are those few that stand on the sidelines making observations. Those who have never assisted a patient inquiry, attended to a patient, received a patient complaint and helped them through a nightmare experience – those groups may not be the best fit for building stepping stones. From the inquiries received daily from patients, together with complaints about providers and services, and in some cases reports of preventable bad outcomes, you can really see where the needs of the industry are essentially not being met. Ranking on a facilitator’s top ten list of countries should not be the primary goal. Delivering good patient outcomes should be.
My post specifically was a call for standardization of metrics and collection of data and for a better attitude. MTA has never provided a report of the number of patients traveling specifically because they are not standardized enough to benchmark country to country. We do not create our own numbers, and we do not hold value in published numbers from less than credible sources. We also do not “froth at the mouth” when we hear numbers disputed as we dispute them ourselves. It will come – in due time and until then, we advise our partners to keep their information and reporting flowing, as the industry really needs it.
There was no mention in my post of a lack of academia; there are plenty of available academic reports from trusted peer reviewed journals, which have been reviewed and can be found on the MTA member’s pages of our website. There is however a lack of implementation of the metrics recommended therein and, accordingly, a call for action should be reiterated herein.
Obstacles should be used as stepping stones and progress should be made. We are taking what we have learned from the patients to put best practices in place at the healthcare provider level. We organize educational workshops in cities throughout the US for employers and recognize the need for education to their employees of not only opportunities to travel for healthcare, but also the need for education about prevention which inevitably provides for opportunity in advance or instead of “last resort care.” We have created a lobbying group to lobby the US government for reimbursement of overseas healthcare services for Medicare. We created alliances for consumer education through very large consumer networks. As a trade association, this is for the benefit of the industry as a whole. Patient advocacy is not the primary purpose of a trade association as it may create conflicts of interests. Therefore, until a patient advocacy group is created, we as providers of healthcare and facilitators, or the association thereof, need to be the advocates for patients by giving them the best care. Let’s not lose sight of that in all the “murky water.”
And for David whose response to my post was that of Stonehenge and Druids imagery, brilliant, I see it as well. These are progressive times and what we leave behind in healthcare should not be a mystery. Not much was known about the Druids as they did not leave anything behind. So I suppose perhaps a good take away is that we all should to do something to leave a meaningful and impressionable mark – not only for each other, but directly or indirectly in the lives of the patients and their families.