Current trends in medical tourism

Posted by ei2Aevai on December 10th, 2020

Medical tourism is still largely unknown to a majority of people. Although many know the existence, they do not seem to put them together a sequence. Medical tourism is centuries old and historically performed for various reasons and diseases appropriate to that period. Today, the information age has not changed much of it, but only promoted its development into an organized practice. The current economic downturn has led to many people losing their jobs but still not being eligible for unemployment or medical benefits. In addition, the third-party payer system in healthcare (also known as insurance) has become more restrictive. Many complain that the deductible has doubled in the last few years. Many procedures require pre-certification. There are some clauses that are specifically written to exclude the pre-existing conditions. Moreover, many procedures are not covered because they are simply not medically necessary. Patients do not have real money to spend on their holiday activities after these expenses. The situation is painfully similar for the self-employed. This illustrates a simple fact that under-insured is not significantly better than UN-insured patients.

These factors have led to the explosive growth of international medical tourism in recent years. The number of companies explodes and delivers any procedure under the sun. It is worrying that some of these companies are run by people with no existing medical related experience. Moreover, some companies seem to commit to all countries and doctors in the world regardless of quality. They just seem to play the role of price brokers. The disturbing fact is that the facilities are listed as providers of medical tourism. Their "hospitals" have 3-10 hospital beds. These facilities should not even be considered for the international patients. But the prize is used as a strong lure.

Patients are more active on the Internet and are actively exploring different options. They ask questions and are eager for non-invasive procedures. They also shop a lot and try to get the best possible price. But with the relentless pressure from cheap clinics and certain medical tourism providers, they do not understand that there is more to a surgical procedure than just the price. In addition, most service providers do not care enough or take the time to train patients. This has resulted in several suboptimal results after surgery. Some of the spotted surgeries have even resulted in death.

Some of the US domestic cosmetic surgeons are trying to reverse this trend by following the factory model of the cosmetic surgeries that we discussed above. The recent USA Today story on cosmetic surgery from Florida illustrates these facts. One must understand that the reason for medical tourism is affordable. The higher wages and error premiums result in price differences. Simply rushing the surgeries to compete with medical tourism would not be in the patient's best interest and could result in increased error premiums.

Some insurance companies have started medical insurance plans, even though these are in the phase of pilot projects. In addition, many employers are opening up to this idea as a means of curbing health care costs. These are welcome changes in this field and should make a significant contribution to raising the standards among medical tourism providers. Y tế Daejeon