Anecdotal accounts of medical tourism often describe significant cost savings and suggest that the volume of patients who seek care overseas is climbing rapidly. Over the past few years, medical tourism has been depicted as a fast-growing trend to keep an eye on, with one advertisement cited by the Wall Street Journal suggests that Asia gets 1.3 million medical tourists annually.
Not so, according to a study from the consulting group McKinsey & Co. In a survey of 50,000 patients who traveled for surgery, only 13% opted for an offshore procedure because it was less expensive. In fact, it appears that patients from the U.S. and other developed countries make up only a small portion of medical tourists. Many patients included in the 50,000-patient sample were from developing countries who traveled to industrialized nations for treatment, and this is reflected in the survey results; 40% of patients traveled to obtain the most advanced technology, and 32% traveled for better quality care. Another 15% resorted to medical tourism for quicker access to a procedure, which is understandable in countries such as the U.K., where the wait for a hip or knee replacement can be upward from two years.
The Medical Tourism Association noted that a possible limitation of the study is that the sample was selected based on hospital admissions, and cosmetic and dental procedures, which comprise a significant portion of medical tourism cases, are not performed in hospitals. The study determined that only 60,000 to 85,000 patients per year travel for hospital inpatient procedures.
Of course, these patient groups could grow dramatically with payer support. The study states that about 710,000 procedures a year could be could be performed overseas at a savings of about $15,000 per procedure, though the study adds that 80% of procedures will still be more cost-effective in the U.S. when patient insurance coverage is factored in. If and when a real shift occurs to send patients abroad for less costly care, it will likely be driven by insurers.
