Comparative Data on Medical Tourism Could Be a Boon for Travel Sellers

Comparative data about medical facilities and healthcare outcomes may become available this year. That kind of information would be a big help to travel sellers in the medical tourism niche.

According to medical tourism facilitator David Boucher, a new vendor will begin providing comparative data about medical facilities and outcomes both domestically and overseas sometime later this year.

Transparency of information – including data about outcomes, rates of infection, and physicians and surgeons at domestic and international hospitals – is vital if consumers are to make informed decisions, said Boucher, president and COO of Companion Global Healthcare in Columbia, S.C.

That kind of data also would be useful to travel sellers active in the medical travel niche or working to tap the market. It could be used to help guide clients and in marketing materials and sales pitches.

Boucher said the vendor will provide “very good hospital comparison information of 200 hospitals in the U.S. and 200 international hospitals.” He did not name the company or the interests behind it.

Boucher’s company helps integrate medical tourism options at accredited international medical facilities for employees and dependents.

Growing consumer awareness
U.S. consumers may be surprised to learn that overseas facilities such as Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, Apollo Hospital in Chenai, India, and Anadolu Medical Center in Istanbul, among others, are as good as and, in some cases better, than U.S. facilities, Boucher said.

Increasing coverage in U.S. media of successful outcomes among Americans who have traveled abroad for medical care is building consumer confidence and awareness about medical travel and the standards of care available overseas, Boucher said.

He cited a recent comment by Donald Berwick, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Berwick was quoted in Bloomberg BusinessWeek as saying, “It is politically correct, and widely believed, to say American health care is the best in the world. It is not.”

Market size studied
One challenge facing medical tourism providers is lack of data about the potential market.

The topic was addressed in the Journal of General Internal Medicine’s online edition last month.

“There are growing reports of United States residents traveling overseas for medical care, but empirical data about medical tourism are limited,” stated a team of authors, from the University of Iowa and Medical Insights International in Lebanon, Georgia.

The article, titled Medical Tourism Services Available to Residents of the United States, stated that the number of medical travelers in the U.S. numbers tens of thousands of patients, not hundreds of thousands, as previous studies have indicated.

“We were interested in the size of the market for medical tourism or medical travel and the businesses that assisted patients in utilizing this care,” lead author Brand Alleman told Travel Market Report. Alleman is a MD/PhD candidate in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Iowa.

Larger market estimate
Boucher and others, including the International Medical Travel Journal (IMTJ), said the article’s estimate of the market’s size is too low. Boucher noted that the authors did not contact influential players in the medical tourism arena, including his own company.

The International Medical Travel Journal noted that the article did not include ethnic travelers from the U.S. returning to their home countries for treatment or Americans traveling for dental procedures.

The journal said it welcomed the article’s “attempt to put some validity on the size of the U.S. outbound market … by asking medical tourism businesses how many patients they actually handle rather than by creating ‘guesstimates’ based on what people say they might do.”

Alleman said he does see growth potential for medical tourism.

“Patients need access to quality affordable healthcare. It’s possible that this could be supplied by foreign or domestic providers willing to compete on price and quality,” he said. “Increasing the size of the market for healthcare can only serve to give consumers better choices.”