Medical Tourism is fast developing sector in health care industry. A number of developing and developed nations have their hopes in the system that can provide them some leverage to pay for their healthcare bills. Certainly increasing bills of healthcare in developed world is a reason of worry for the Governments, and they are eagerly looking forward if some one can bail them out, some one to share their problem. On the other hand developing world is relying on earning some quick buck out of this fast growing trend. The numbers are really amazing and every coming day, alarming reports are published, which is creating some hope and belief for one side and a business model to improve the standards of healthcare system for others.

Improving life expectancy resulting in growing number of old age patients, inception of newer technologies, increasing costs of medicine are few of the most important factors resulting in higher healthcare costs. Increasingly expensive healthcare costs, expensive healthcare insurance costs, long waiting time have made people to cross borders to get affordable and low cost healthcare provisions. Though this is an age old way of seeking treatment but for past one decade it is growing exponentially and for last two to three years, it has come up to expectations. . Internet is the main driver behind it and has made it successful. With clear and transparent healthcare provision and patient centered approach at all levels of delivery systems has cemented the success of medical tourism. More and more countries and healthcare providers are adopting it and certainly it is coming up, as one of the important sectors of revenue generation. Thus countries like India, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia have become the ideal destinations for Medical Tourism.
Medical Tourism is fast becoming a preferred method of seeking solutions for expensive procedure and other medical treatment options for people who are not able to pay for unavoidable health and wellness care.

FACTS

• Some 200,000 traveling patients left the USA last year to have their medical and surgical requests fulfilled in foreign countries such as Brazil, Costa Rica, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.(publisher: Stewart, Tabori & Cheng, New York release date June 1, 2006).
• Deloitte’s 2008 Survey of Health Care Consumers, estimates that by 2010 as many as 600,000 (Six Million) US people will be accessing care outside the USA--- an alarming rise of 700%.
• About 2 Million of this will travel to Asia Pacific Region alone, by 2010.
• According to the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia, the number of foreigners seeking healthcare services in Malaysia has grown from 75,210 patients in year 2001 to 296,687 patients in year 2006 which generated a total of RM203.66 million (USD 59 million) in revenue. From January to March 2007, Malaysia received 77,009 medical tourists.
• The number of foreign patients at private hospitals shot up to 341,288 last year, from 296,687 in 2006 and 232,161 the year before.
• The hospitals also reported a corresponding increase in revenue from this sector:

RM253.84 million in 2007, compared with RM203.6 million in 2006 and RM150.9 million in year 2005. Almost 80% increase in 3 years.

Medical Tourism, health tourism is expected to be valued at US$ 40 Billion annually in USA alone, by year 2010. On the other hand, more than 2.9 million patients visited Malaysia and neighboring countries to seek medical treatments in the past year. Deloitte a statistical consultant firm of international repute estimates the number to increase by 17% CAG, year by year and there will be 2 million patients/ tourists coming to Asia Pacific region from US/ Canadian region, alone. Thus, the facts and figures show strong market position for medical/ health tourism.

Consequently, between years 2000 to 2007, the increase of receipts from health tourism has been growing at 30 per cent a year and this is forecast to continue until year 2010. By then, it is expected that a total of RM584million in medical revenue will be generated. This is a constructive advantage reported by Association of Private Hospital Malaysia. Medical Tourism industry in Malaysia though seems to be growing, but it has yet to reach its full potential as resources are not used to the utmost. The industry is highly supported by the Health Ministry of Malaysia as an economic overview has stated that it will be a constructive one ahead of time. In nutshell, the industry is encouraged and expected to grow and prosper in the years ahead, thus allowing healthcare providers, facilitators, corporate players to leverage and prosper to provide much needed support to the healthcare sector.

Wellness Visit is a Malaysia based Medical Tourism Facilitator, aimed to create healthcare solutions for medical and health tourism industry, connecting overseas patients to reputable and reliable healthcare providers in Malaysia. The company believes in the importance of transparency and unification of services. Wellness Visit invests heavily to ensure quality is maintained at all levels of healthcare care delivery system.

Wellness Visit trusts in its vision, “To create an even stronger belief in this growing industry by setting examples at all levels of service delivery. Working to achieve best standards to satisfy the increasing demand and reducing the costs in healthcare. Creation of a new and a healthy culture in healthcare”. Thus creating a borderless community and aspires to provide a platform where all healthcare providers, corporate firms, insurance agencies, tour providers, airline operators, domestic service facilitators, come together to promote Medical tourism. Consequently, it defines itself as a platform and a tool whereby a network is formed amongst strategic alliances to allow tourists/ patients from all around the world to seek treatment in Malaysia in atmosphere of convenience, transparency and unification.

Banking on patient centered approach Wellness Visit, puts its Tourists/ Patients First, at all levels of services delivery. It provides dynamic education on diseases, with animations, text/ illustrations and self assisted learning. Wellness Visit have also highlighted salient features about Hospitals and Doctors, for its tourists/ patients, to better understand and evaluate. Same goes with ancillary services, which are described in ample detail so that a clear and vivid picture is created. And all this is a proof of its belief in quality and creating a patient centered service. Furthermore Wellness Visit has created community on line, where tourists/ patients can express their self, their views will be freely published, making it responsible, eager to improve from the feedback through its visitors, and stands responsible for its services delivery.

Through the web portal, Wellness Visit, we aim to attract patients from all countries to seek health and wellness in Malaysia. Providing them with all the essential information and services in an integrated fashion, to gain a new Wellness and rejuvenation at Beautiful Destination Malaysia before returning home, healthy and safe.

The strategic alliances created will benefit the healthcare providers in a big way. As we know that there is scarce presence of our healthcare industry on internet/ world wide web (www). And this alliance will enhance Healthcare providers/ Hospitals to be recognized as premier providers of medical tourism solutions, through internet.

This alliance will also allow healthcare providers to bank on wellness visit by extending its invitation to all patients around the world to utilize the facilities available at their premises. And to experience the high degree of professionalism that Malaysia can offer. This will certainly open up platform of medical and healthcare service provision as means of global health for the whole world through medical tourism facilitator to a wider horizon or whole world.

We are positively looking forward to this Strategic Alliance by having Hospital ……. on board with us as our Preferred Destination in the booming industry of medical and health tourism. As being a healthcare facilitator with a main focus of meeting the needs of international community of patients and medical tourism seekers. Wellness Visit is looking forward into a long term strategic relationship with its international medical tourism community by providing excellent services and a strong bondage with hospitals in Malaysia. Also keeping close ties with other important stake holders, like hotel and accommodation providers, tourist operators, allied services providers etc, to build a synergy to achieve a common goal of making Malaysia as the top destination of medical tourism and www.wellnessvisit.com as the preferred provider of medical tourism solutions.

Talking of medical tourism or health tourism is not a new topic any more in health care industry and even in general population as well. Rising costs in provision of health and increasing waiting times has lead many people in West to fly to countries in Asia and Latin America to seek medical attention.

Started with tourists who sought some help at medical centers in visiting countries for minor procedures, like some plastic surgery of minor nature, the trend picked up and started growing, Almost reaching its maturity in terms of systems, processes, services, transparency, bench marks, continuity of care, quality assurance. And most of all the quality of care provided are all setting up a really mature and promising industry. World is aware of Google search engine, once some term is searched, it shows results in numbers, and about 8 to 9 years ago, the term medical tourism may only fetch few hundred results. But if someone tries it now it is in millions in Google and Yahoo, and other search engines. This is a proof of medical tourism fast evolving into a known industry and a trusted trend in healthcare industry.

There are many facets of medical tourism and it has become a ray of hope for Governments and Institutions, for patients and insurance providers. While on the other hand it has become a hope for healthcare organizations who are treating these tourists to make money out of it and improve their standards of care. Like if we follow American phenomenon for medical tourism, their hope is that it will bail out their healthcare system for quality treatment at no delay in getting procedures done and most of all saving huge amount of exchequer. Currently, total hip replacement, an orthopedic procedure costs about 50,000.00 US Dollars, while same procedure is done at 10 to 15 thousand US Dollars. More over current waiting time for this procedure ranges from six months to 18 months in USA while on the other hand medical tourists can book this procedure over night with a highly competent doctor at a medical tourism destination like Malaysia and India. This is increasingly becoming important for countries like USA, UK and Canada to bail out its failing public health systems, to provide wide medical coverage to large strata of population especially non affording healthcare insurance. Increasing waiting times in Canada has led to government of Canada reimbursing costs for medical expenses at overseas destinations. US companies are luring their employees to go for medical tourism trips, to get treated for high cost procedures like hip, knee replacement surgeries, cardiac, heart operations etc . More over when these patients travel overseas they land at good hospitals and experienced doctors, who are even better what these patients may have found in their own country.

Medical tourism related flight of patients away form US healthcare providers has compelled US and Canadian hospitals to find solutions for incompetencies related to long waiting time in important surgeries. Increasing price factor has also made healthcare providers in USA/ Canada to check this important cause of patients and insurance providers preferring more overseas destinations then local. Like recently US state of Orlando and Boston has started providing some low cost solutions for hip and knee replacement surgeries to US Companies, as these companies have earlier sent employees to overseas hospitals to cut cots. Hospitals in Boston have agreed to reduce costs to same as at one of the favorite healthcare destination in Asia. Over all medical tourism has lead US heaalthcare providers to reduce the costs and provide better healthcare services

On the other hand medical costs and expenditures are rising everywhere in the world, I could not find any country where medical costs have reduced over the period of time. These counties have found medical tourism a panacea for their burgeoning medical budgets. As the money brought by medical tourist patients can pay for uplifting the standards of medical facilities. We can very well know this from Thailand, where there are many improved medical facilities now, with top American technologies and equipments and accredited with JCI standards. Same holds true for India, Malaysia and other regional countries who have found money from medical tourism patients to pay for improving the facilities and quality of care provided. Though I have yet to come across any regulations by government bodies to make it compulsory, for institutions to spend some part of their profits, from medical tourism to uplift the public or local healthcare facilities. But we all can very well understand that improving standard of medical care in private sector in any country is an important area of development, and medical tourism has really spurred this in Latin American countries like Columbia, Mexico and Brazil, and also for Asian countries like India, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Thanks to medical tourism that latest robotic surgeries are now available in most of Asia Pacific big cities. This gives a choice for local community to avail it, as previously, people used to fly to American hospitals to be treated with advanced tools. Another evolving important aspect of medical tourism is hospitals getting better by taking accreditations from international standardizing bodies. Though some countries have already in place top class accredited bodies like MSQH in Malaysia, but this did spur the demand to further improve the standards to match advanced care in developed world to provide better facilities to incoming medical tourism patients. It has also started revolutionizing the trends of spending on technologies like RFID in healthcare IT related solutions and improved web based services.

Another healthy aspect of medical tourism on provider side is of, more transparent approach to match developed nations, best practices and processes are put to even better shape, and institutions have started putting proper descriptions to their services , rates are readily displayed for services provided, and patient rights and charters are more openly advocated. Patient education standards have improved and more and more emphasis is being put on keeping patients well informed of their illness and its management. This is a very important aspect to prevent litigation which has marred the process of health care in developed world, as it has resulted in increasing costs to set measures before litigations arise and thus escalating the costs of health care provision. Also empowering patients with education will result in better outcomes in disease prevention and progression and also will reduce the complications, and thus benefiting the implementation of more strict methods of this trend. Medical tourism has made it more important for healthcare providers to practice to prevent litigation on the basis of lack of information provided to patients.

An interesting development taking place is US hospitals, is their self venturing in opening their offices overseas to develop patient base and bring them to USA for further treatment. More over they are sending their own patients over seas to their own locations for low cost treatment, still keeping intact their health consumer base.These US hospitals are venturing to get some portion of medical tourism, offering procedures at over seas hospitals running under their care and command. The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, created the University of Miami International Medicine Institute, to focus on Latin America and the Caribbean—regions for which the school already serves as a leading academic medical centre. The International Medicine Institute is looking into investing in a hospital in Cartagena, Columbia, and seeking associations with hospitals in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas. Johns Hopkins has not left itself behind and has invested in the Caribbean and Central America to setup Johns Hopkins Medicine International hospital. US-certified physicians perform several operations there at a fraction of US costs. Elsewhere in the region, Johns Hopkins helped Clinica las Condes in Chile to become the first hospital in that country to be JCI accredited. And few more examples are also there in which US hospitals and healthcare providers have worked with their over sees counterparts, to get benefited from US community traveling abroad.

Insurance companies are not left behind in providing some innovations to medical tourism industry and more and more customized and tailor made packages are evolving. A leading American Insurance provider has recently launched a plan for medical tourists from US, which will give them some cover against complications of procedures once they are back after getting some procedure done at overseas destinations. Same goes with insurance companies providing variety of contingency plans for medical tourists at overseas destinations.

Its just a beginning of evolution of medical tourism and we are yet to see, some real examples of mass medical tourism either from or at some over seas destinations. But figures quoted by leading international business consultants are amazing and it clearly tells of a real big industry in the phase of evolution.