Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Medical Tourism Services Available to Residents of the United States

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Journal of General Internal Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND

There are growing reports of United States (US) residents traveling overseas for medical care, but empirical data about medical tourism are limited.

OBJECTIVE

To characterize the businesses and business practices of entities promoting medical tourism and the types and costs of procedures being offered.

DESIGN, PARTICIPANTS, AND OUTCOMES

Between June and August 2008, we conducted a telephone survey of all businesses engaged in facilitating overseas medical travel for US residents. We collected information from each company including: the number of employees; number of patients referred overseas; medical records security processes; destinations to which patients were referred; treatments offered; treatment costs; and whether patient outcomes were collected.

RESULTS

We identified 63 medical tourism companies and 45 completed our survey (71%). Companies had a mean of 9.8 employees and had referred an average of 285 patients overseas (a total of approximately 13,500 patients). 35 (79%) companies reported requiring accreditation of foreign providers, 22 (50%) collected patient outcome data, but only 17 (39%) described formal medical records security policies. The most common destinations were India (23 companies, 55%), Costa Rica (14, 33%), and Thailand (12, 29%). The most common types of care included orthopedics (32 companies, 73%), cardiac care (23, 52%), and cosmetic surgery (29, 66%). 20 companies (44%) offered treatments not approved for use in the US – most commonly stem cell therapy. Average costs for common procedures, CABG ($18,600) and knee arthroplasty ($10,800), were similar to previous reports.

CONCLUSIONS

The number of Americans traveling overseas for medical care with assistance from medical tourism companies is relatively small. Attention to medical records security and patient outcomes is variable and cost-savings are dependent on US prices. That said, overseas medical care can be a reasonable alternative for price sensitive patients in need of relatively common, elective medical procedures.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1

Similar content being viewed by others

references

  1. Grumbach K, Anderson GM, Luft HS, Roos LL, Brook R. Regionalization of cardiac surgery in the United States and Canada. Geographic access, choice, and outcomes. JAMA. 1995;274:1282–8.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Holt PJ, Poloniecki JD, Hinchliffe RJ, Loftus IM, Thompson MM. Model for the reconfiguration of specialized vascular services. Br J Surg. 2008;95:1469–74.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Landrum MB, Guadagnoli E, Zummo R, Chin D, McNeil BJ. Care following acute myocardial infarction in the Veterans Administration Medical Centers: a comparison with Medicare. Health Serv Res. 2004;39:1773–92.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Brown HS. Income, location, and the demand for health care from public, nonprofit, and for-profit hospitals. J Health Care Finance. 2001;27:24–38.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Moore JD Jr. Medical mecca. Foreign patients flock to Miami seeking care and service. Mod Healthc. 1997;27:30–7.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ornstein C, Glionna JM. After livers, cash to UCLA. Los Angeles Times 2008 May 31.

  7. Saudi royals spend $1.5 million during Minnesota visit. In: Denver Post Wire Report; 2008.

  8. Horowitz MD, Rosensweig JA. Medical tourism vs. traditional international medical travel: a tale of two models. International Medical Travel Journal. 2008;1-14.

  9. Konrad W. Going abroad to find affordable healthcare. The New York Times 2009 March 20;Sect. 6.

  10. Rotenberk L. Medical tourism. As the world flattens, US hospitals expand their global reach. Hosp Health Netw. 2008;82:14.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Bauer JC. Medical tourism: wave of the future in a world of hurt? Healthc Financ Manage. 2009;63:36–8. 40, 2.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Horowitz MD, Rosensweig JA. Medical tourism–health care in the global economy. Physician Exec. 2007;33(24–6):8–30.

    Google Scholar 

  13. The Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 2008;3:1227-31.

    Google Scholar 

  14. American Medical Association. New AMA guidelines on medical tourism; 2009.

  15. Canales MT, Kasiske BL, Rosenberg ME. Transplant tourism: Outcomes of United States residents who undergo kidney transplantation overseas. Transplantation. 2006;82:1658–61.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Jafary FH, Ahmed H, Kiani J. Outcomes of primary percutaneous coronary intervention at a joint commission international accredited hospital in a developing country – can good results, possibly similar to the west, be achieved? J Invasive Cardiol. 2007;19:417–23.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Horowitz MD, Rosensweig JA, Jones CA. Medical tourism: globalization of the healthcare marketplace. Medscape General Medicine. 2007;9:33.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Horowitz MD, Rosenweig JA. Medical tourism – health care in the global economy. Physician Exec. 2007;33:24.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Milstein A, Smith M. America’s new refugees–seeking affordable surgery offshore. N Engl J Med. 2006;355:1637–40.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Deloitte Consulting Inc. Medical tourism: update and implications- 2009 report; 2009.

  21. Francis T. Medical tourism is still small. The Wall Street Journal 2008 May 6.

  22. Milstein A, Smith M. Will the surgical world become flat? Health Aff (Millwood). 2007;26:137–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Melnick GA, Fonkych K. Hospital pricing and the uninsured: do the uninsured pay higher prices? Health Aff. 2008;27:w116–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Ginsburg P. Shopping for price in medical care. Health Aff (Millwood). 2007;26:w208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Alderman L. Bargaining down the medical bills. NY Times. 2009;14:2009. March.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Jones JW, McCullough LB. What to do when a patient’s international medical care goes south. J Vasc Surg. 2007;46:1077–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Barclay E. Stem-cell experts raise concerns about medical tourism. Lancet. 2009;373:883–4.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. MacReady N. The murky ethics of stem-cell tourism. Lancet Oncol. 2009;10:317–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Dr. Reisinger is supported by a Career Development Award from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Health Services Research and Development Service (CD1 08-013-1). Dr. Martin is an investigator at the Iowa City VA Medical Center. Dr. Cram was supported by a K23 career development award (RR01997201) from the NCRR at the NIH and the Robert Wood Johnson Physician Faculty Scholars Program. This work is also funded by R01 HL085347-01A1 from NHLBI at the NIH.

Conflicts of Interest

Dr. Reisinger, Dr. Martin and Dr. Cram have no conflicts of interest to disclose. Dr. Horowitz is President of Medical Insights International, a consulting firm specializing in international and domestic medical travel. Dr. Horowitz provided assistance in the development of the study survey, identification of companies for consideration for inclusion of the survey and critical commentary and revision of the manuscript. Dr. Horowitz did not participate in the analysis of the study data or funding of the study. All other authors had full access to all of the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. Mr. Alleman and Ms. Luger are graduate students at the University of Iowa with no financial interests related to this study. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The funding sources had no role in the analyses or drafting of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brandon W. Alleman BS BA.

Electronic Supplementary Materials

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

ESM 1

(PDF 165 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Alleman, B.W., Luger, T., Reisinger, H.S. et al. Medical Tourism Services Available to Residents of the United States. J GEN INTERN MED 26, 492–497 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-010-1582-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-010-1582-8

KEY WORDS

Navigation