Domestic Medical Tourism Research Articles

Review of studies on the development of domestic and foreign medical tourism

Medical tourism industry is one of the most fast-growing new tourist industries.Through domestic and foreign literature retrieval,the definition and categories of medical tourism,the current status of researches are synthesized,and the necessity of the international medical tourism development is analyzed objectively,and the researches on domestic medical tourism are prospected.For the future research,we propose to pay more attention to this field,strengthening normative and micro-level researches and meanwhile expanding the research scopes. Key words: Medical tourism; Development; Research review

U.S. Domestic Medical Tourism Delivers Sustainable Tourism for America?s Cities and States

While international medical tourism has dominated the discussion and media coverage of the fast-growth medical travel industry, the emergence of US Domestic Medical Tourism and its role in advancing sustainable tourism is now generating significant attention. The phenomenon of this new trend in medical travel -- inter-state to Centers of Excellence (COEs) throughout the country and inbound to the U.S. ? is largely the result of the impact of U.S. health reforms, employer receptivity to introducing a medical travel benefit, consumer willingness to travel to other parts of the United States to access quality care with improved outcomes, and increased demand for more cost-effective care that meets budget requirements. Additionally, foreigners increasingly travel to the US to take advantage of the Centers of Excellence and treatments available in the US. Many COEs have installed dedicated units to treat foreign patients, who very often travel with entourages and extended families that stay in local hotels and shop locally.?In fact, the United States is now one of the top three destinations worldwide for medical travel, and receives as many as 800,000 international patients seeking help with the most difficult health conditions. This article examines these trends and some of the key drivers of the industry, and provides illustrations of U.S. cities that are connecting medical tourism to sustainable tourism.

Medicare Medical Tourism: An Economic & Political Perspective

As the United States (US) Medicare system faces increasing financial pressure, and an unsustainable cost trajectory, legislators need to contemplate instituting a modified policy that includes domestic tourism for non-urgent procedures as a strategy to exploit cost variances amongst hospitals. Managers of select US companies have adopted policies that benefit both shareholder and employee interests; employees can opt to travel to lower cost, non-domestic hospital and share in the savings, while shareholders get a reduction in health care expenditures.Medicare could deploy a similar strategy domestically, saving taxpayers while increasing the probability of Medicare’s survival. But, policy change requires significant political capital surrounding such sensitive entitlement programs. Cost savings opportunities, that may prove unpopular, are unlikely to create a punctuated equilibrium alone. Significant public support for change must accompany the financial gain. I develop propositions rooted in the potential cost savings of a Medicare domestic medical tourism policy calculated by a linear optimization model. Acknowledging that policy change is a potentially career threatening move for politicians, I also develop propositions regarding the public support necessary to affect a change in the political endorsement of a domestic tourism initiative and the coupled policy change in Washington DC

Domestic Medical Tourism: A Neglected Dimension of Medical Tourism Research

To date, the literature on medical tourism has focused almost exclusively on international medical tourism, or medical services outsourced to other countries. However, there are a growing number of patients who travel for medical care within their own country. Medical tourism experts have suggested that competition introduced from abroad, combined with health care reform, may stimulate improvement in health care offerings in the United States, and lead to an increase in such medical tourism. This article will therefore extend the literature by examining domestic medical tourism in the United States. There is a scarcity of research investigating consumer attitudes and beliefs towards the concept of medical tourism—particularly for domestic medical tourism. The authors present a new model, along with a research agenda for studying both attitudes towards such tourism, as well as the potential impact of domestic medical tourism on regional economies in the United States.

Domestic Medical Tourism: Are Hospital Charges a Factor?

Domestic Medical Tourism: Are Hospital Charges a Factor?