Mexico Medical Tourism
The invitation of Prof. Deepak K. Datta of the College of Business
at the University
of Texas
at Arlington, Medical
Tourism Corporation CEO, Mr. Deepak Datta, shared an
insight on “Medical Tourism” with UTA Executive MBA Class, during their
post-dinner session in a December evening class.
(There is no typing error! They both share the same name.)
Mr. Deepak Datta, at the executive MBA program of the University of Texas, talked about globalization
in healthcare industry as related to Medical
Tourism.
The practice of seeking medical treatments outside one’s local healthcare
system dates back to thousands of years, when people traveled to get treatments
for various ailments in mineral water spas. However, technology, more efficient
means of travel, and active involvement of mass media have contributed to a
steady growth in the numbers of patients traveling overseas for surgeries.
Mr. Datta said that medical tourism is a regional
phenomenon, with most medical tourists preferring to visit nearby countries for
their healthcare needs.
While Americans and Canadians mostly head to Mexico and Costa Rica, people from Africa
and the Middle East
prefer to go to India.
Korea
is the medical destination of choice for many people from Japan, while Thailand is the top choice for most
Australians& many countries in Europe.
Price, safety, travel distance, visa rules, local laws and quality of
healthcare are obviously the chief considerations for medical tourists while
deciding their healthcare destination, but some cultural influence is also
noted. While US Hispanics head to Mexico,
the Britons prefer other European countries.
A destination’s reputation for a particular medical service also matters and
some countries are more popular for certain procedures than others.
Surrogacy
in India attracts
many foreigners struggling with infertility issues. Cosmetic surgeries like
*** implants, liposuction and hair
transplant in India
also have many takers because of their low prices. Treatments for heart
problems and orthopedic treatments like knee replacement, hip replacement,
cervical and lumbar
spinal disc replacement in India
are sought by people, who cannot afford them at their native places.
Low cost dental treatments and weight
loss surgery in Mexico
are preferred by Americans and Canadians, who do not want to travel too far for
healthcare. Many Americans prefer to drive down to the border, get their root
canals or dental
implants in US-Mexico
border clinics (which have mushroomed at a remarkable rate over the past
few years) and return home the same day.
Many people also opt to get their dental
implants in Costa Rica.
Besides, they fly to get bariatric and cosmetic surgeries in these Latin
American countries, because not only the prices are low, but also the
treatments are high quality. Realizing the potential of medical tourism
industry, the doctors are prepared to deal with medical tourists and
accordingly arrange for English-speaking staff.
While the official and most commonly used language in Costa Rica is Spanish, it is not
difficult to find a dentist or cosmetic
surgeon in Costa Rica,
who is fluent in English.
Low priced cosmetic
surgery in Thailand
is also a big draw for medical tourists as they not only get the cost advantage
but also get to maintain privacy for their beauty enhancing treatments. Thailand,
however, is preferred more by Australians as the distance is less and flights
are relatively convenient.
Who wants to wait in long lines to see the dentists, when you can get immediate
load dental implants in Thailand
at less than half the price?
According to Mr. Datta, elective procedures like weight
loss surgery, cosmetic surgery, fertility treatments and dental care are the
most common medical services people travel for. This is probably because these
are generally excluded from insurance coverage and a medical tourist is usually
self-paying.
However, hospitals also get many foreign patients who are looking for more
serious treatments like chemo or radiotherapy for cancer, heart valve
repair/replacement, ivf treatments, knee/shoulder/elbow/hip replacement and
other major surgeries because either the doctors at their home are too busy to
quickly give them an appointment and relieve their pain or they are too
expensive that an individual dreads upsetting his yearly budget if he decides
to undergo a particular surgery.
The UTA MBA students got an overview of the medical tourism industry from a
man who has been in the industry for over many years. Mr. Datta
not only shared facts about the current trends in medical tourism, but also
talked about the various factors that have fuelled globalization of healthcare
industry in the past decade.
He said that the unavailability of doctors or particular medical services at
one’s home turf, better quality of care in another country, and local
healthcare services that are beyond one’s financial means are the factors that
drive medical tourism. Privacy issues at home also sometimes cause people to move
out for their medical treatments.
Mr. Datta clearly dispelled the impression that Medical
Tourism is a fast growing phenomenon, referring to a research that indicated
closure of many medical tourism companies in North America.
However, he pointed that there is no reliable data gathering methodology to
validate the number of medical tourists.
People who travel to get medical treatments away from their local healthcare
systems are called medical tourists. Some do it to save money, while others
travel in pursuit of better services abroad, or to maintain their privacy.
Expats, home returning nonresidents, tourists availing emergency medical
services, are also clubbed together as medical tourists. There are also some
spa & wellness travelers, but they do not represent a strict medical
tourist.
Patient numbers of Medical Tourism Co., a Texas-based
medical tourism company run by Mr. Datta, have been growing at
a significant rate since 2008, essentially due to extended network of hospital
and doctors.Mr. Datta has continuously endeavored to join
hands with the finest hospitals in several countries and is quite upbeat about
the growth of the company in near future.
Medical Tourism Co. has networked with reputed hospitals in Mexico, Costa Rica, Belgium, Turkey, Jordan,El Salvador, South Korea, Thailand, and India,
and over the past few years, the company has facilitated out-of-country medical
treatments for over 2000 patients from the West.
The UTA MBA students also got to learn about the challenges faced by the patients
and the hospitals in the globalization of healthcare industry, which include
the absence of anyglobal standard patient outcome data, no clear cut follow-up
regimen, language & cultural differences, safety issues at a medial
destination, long travel, and complex visa laws in some countries.
Mr. Datta shared that patients are sometimes apprehensive
of the quality of care offered in a foreign hospital and they are not certain
about the follow up care since traveling long distances again is difficult.
On the hospitals’ part, many times there is lack of understanding the
market. It is important to promote and provide what a medical traveler is
looking for, and tourism, Mr. Datta says, is always secondary
for these travelers.
Mr. Datta also explained how medical tourism works with
medical insurance companies. He revealed that there have been some efforts in
this direction but none has been very successful.
With the media hype surrounding medical treatments abroad, it is quite
likely that hospitals in the west have started feeling a little threatened by
the whole concept.
However, the vulnerability of American hospitals to medical tourism is not very
convincing as majority of medical tourists travel abroad for elective
procedures that are self-paying.
Had medical travel not been an option, they may have never got the procedure
done in the first place at home.
Mr. Datta also noted that US probably benefits the most
from the medical tourism industry, as thousands of patients from different
parts of the world visit leading American hospitals like MD Anderson Cancer
Center, Jackson Memorial Hospital, Cleveland Clinic,
Mayo Clinic, John
Hopkins, Harvard Medical, and others. Most of these patients are
either wealthy individuals or sponsored by their home governments.
Towards the end of the presentation, Mr. Datta shared in
which direction he sees the industry to be headed, and talked about the future
of the US
medical traveler.
Prof. Deepak
K. Datta(UTA), an award-winning business teacher and researcher,
had invited MTC’s Deepak Datta to share his knowledge about
the ‘Globalization in the Healthcare Industry’ with UTA MBA students.
Prof. Datta teaches in undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs and
UTA, and has also served as the visiting faculty in several international
programs. He expressed gratitude for Mr. Datta’s presentation in the UTA
session, and said, “Your talk fit in perfectly with class objectives – in fact
it helped reinforce some of the things we had discussed prior to your talk.”
Later, the class felicitated Mr. Datta with UTA mementos.
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Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/1/prweb9062631.htm