Medical Travel - The New Health Care Paradigm

Medical tourism or medical travel is simply the act of traveling abroad to a destination for specific a medical procedure rather than remaining in their home country. Americans have been traveling to the Caribbean and Europe  for years to obtain cosmetic and dental surgery that is not covered by their health insurance. Many folks from England and Canada with their socialized medicine and often the long waiting periods for certain procedures have embraced the concept of medical tourism. And the international elite  from not only Europe,but also the Middle East, the Pacific Rim, and South America continue to travel to the US for for medical procedures at a number of world renowned hospitals, such as Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Johns Hopkins, Columbia Presbyterian, the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic among others.

Today medical tourists obtain many types of medical or surgical procedures abroad in large and small facilities, clinics and medical spas as well as internationally accredited facilities paying a fraction of the cost that they would pay in their home countries. Often these procedures are elective cosmetic surgery, dental work, and LASIK eye surgeries. However more folks are traveling abroad for such medical procedures as joint replacements, organ transplants, bariatric-weight loss surgery, cardiac bypass surgery, as well as for cancer treatments, neurological procedures, and more. In many cases the cost of these medical procedures in other countries such as India, Turkey, the Caribbean, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Brazil,and certain central European countries is generally 50 to 80 percent less expensive than the same procedures performed in the US. or England.

 With the use the Internet, online medical travel is easier to research and plan. For some medical travelers who are choosing elective cosmetic or dental procedures, the cost differential enables them the opportunity to recover in  4 to 5 star resorts in complete anonymity, perhaps even have a vacation in an exotic country, and then return home having spent less than the cost of the medical procedure in their home country.

Numerous online medical travel websites allow you to research an ample number of foreign hospitals, doctors, and even government organizations that are  appealing directly to the medical tourist/ consumer in the hopes of attracting them to their country and facilities. However as is true of almost all online medical travel information, you need to be aware that there is a lot of marketing involved. Some online medical travel websites are simply information only portals dispensing with information not only about hospitals, clinics, and medical spas, but also about service providers related to the medical tourism market place such as full service online medical travel websites who will plan your entire trip, online medical travel insurance companies, medical professionals, online medical travel agencies for booking flights and sightseeing tours, accommodations, online medical travel referral agencies, and even medical supplies. In addition there is an abundance of articles about online medical travel. The information overload can be overwhelming.

If you choose to use a professional medical tourism service agency, you should still check them out carefully.  Don't let marketing messages, or even search results in Google - they can be influenced by enterprise seo (search engine optimization) drive your decision making. With an experienced professional team planning your trip, you can save the time consuming job of putting all the various online medical travel information together. Some online medical travel websites will charge a fee, but some do not since they receive compensation from their overseas hospital partners. In addition to finding the best hospital and the right country, your online medical travel service provider may also take care of all your personal travel needs such a helping with your travel documents, plane tickets, accommodations, electronic transfer of medical information to the hospital/clinic you will be using, perhaps even telecommunications with the surgeon, and arranging for an individual care manager who will handle all you needs in the foreign country. The local manager's duties may include:

- Meeting you and your travel companion at the airport
- Providing private transportation to your hotel
- Pre-arranging your hotel check-in
- Providing transportation to-and-from doctor consultation and to-and-from medical procedure(s)
- Interpretation assistance at hospital or clinic if necessary
- Providing communication assistance, such as cell phone or 24 hour contact number
- Checking on you daily as you recuperate
- Providing information about local dining, shopping
- Assisting with local tour and excursion arrangements
- Providing private transportation to the airport for departure and assisting with baggage check-in upon departure

Now not everyone is a good candidate for online medical travel. Depending on the cost of the procedure, plus factoring in all the extra costs such as airfare, pre and post-op hotel accommodations, ground transportation, food, transportation on the ground, and the other essentials of overseas travel, you may find you just break even. You may still want to travel to a medical tourism destination, for any number of other reason such as to achieve complete privacy and anonymity, a peaceful recuperation in an exotic location, an opportunity to sight see either before or after recuperation.

The bottom line is that you need to determine carefully the feasibility of traveling abroad for your healthcare based on your specific needs and requirements.