More Americans are traveling overseas for medical care, with figures as high as 500,000 U.S. patients per year being tossed around. Now, some are suggesting that those that do so are un-patriotic.
Rising healthcare costs are leading more health plans and insurers to warm to the idea of Americans traveling overseas for medical procedures. Proponents of the trend note that surgeries in other countries generally cost 60% less than in the United States. Washington, DC-based Deloitte Center for Health Solutions expects double-digit growth in outbound medical tourism as employers encourage use by workers, and international providers demonstrate that their services are as good as those in the United States.
The spotlight on global healthcare is getting brighter, with two new research reports making headlines last week and popular magazines promoting medical travel to consumers. First, a McKinsey & Company report states that with 60,000 to 85,000 inpatient medical travelers a year, the global healthcare market isn’t as big as individual hospitals and countries have claimed. Then a report came out saying that Deloitte LLP predicts Americans will spend $68 billion annually to non-U.S. healthcare providers by 2010.
Despite the fact that these reports seemingly conflict, medical travel has never had so much attention. In fact, within the past month feature stories about medical travel appeared in Fast Company and U.S. News & World Report—I wonder how long it will be before the weekly news magazine extends its annual “Best Hospitals” ranking beyond the U.S.
With such high interest—and equally high confusion—over the future of global healthcare, there is no shortage of industry insiders forecasting future developments for this in-flux and far-reaching market. Here are three predictions that I heard at last week’s Health Care Globalization Summit:
1. Relationship building: The established global systems are focusing a lot of attention on constructing formal relationships with U.S. health providers. They envision global networks that will provide consumers with the pre- and post-procedure care that is currently a barrier to accessing global hospitals. One might think that U.S. providers would not be receptive to these arrangements, but healthcare executives in Asia and India are optimistic that consumer demand will push these relationships ahead quickly.
2. Payers participation: Consumer and employer demand will also dramatically increase the number of global hospitals in U.S. payer networks, say global hospital executives. While analysts say the success of medical travel hinges on whether Americans access international services—McKinsey & Co. says this is the biggest growth potential—at least one large health plan executive shot down the idea that U.S. payers would greatly expand their international networks. He says there just isn’t enough incentive, but hospital executives disagreed, many expecting to see significant expansion within the next three years.
3. Better quality, lower costs: As global hospitals continually improve quality standards and more and more become JCI accredited, more U.S. consumers who are uninsured, under-insured, or in consumer-directed plans seek out the best value in the global market. At the same time hospitals in developing countries will not see significant price increases because native consumers will keep costs in check. A few industry experts even went so far as to say this will directly influence the cost structures of the U.S. healthcare industry and result in reforms.
I will be sure to explore these topics in detail in upcoming columns. Taken at face value, I remind myself to consider the sources of these predictions, which I suspect might be overly optimistic. At the conference, I had a chance to sit down with Dan Snyder, group executive vice president and group chief operating officer for ParkwayHealth, about his plans for Parkway and thoughts on the direction of the industry. Next week, I will share the highlights from that interview on HealthLeaders Media Global.
When it rains, it pours, and so it goes with my speaking engagements in the industry. Within the span of a few days, I was delighted to address two groups that are often thought to be on opposite sides of a huge fence—physicians and payers. At the annual meeting of the Missouri Osteopathic Physician Association, I talked about physician EMR adoption and some of the driving forces behind clinical IT. A few days later, for the BlueCross BlueShield Association's national conference for communications directors, I joined a media panel to give my take on the top issues. I pointed to the claims and connectivity challenges hindering relationships with payers, both for providers and patients.
These audiences were about as divergent as you can get. Yet both appreciated how the fragmented nature of healthcare is costing the industry dearly. The physician audience included several who have already implemented an EMR—to mixed results. One practice's clinical quality boost is another's loss of productivity, even two years into the deployment. I think it is fair to say I encountered a great deal of skepticism among the physicians on the utility of EMRs. One doctor wondered aloud about an inevitable "CMS mandate" for EMRs. That's not the first time a physician has raised such a concern to me, and it won't be the last. For many physicians, clinical IT remains an abstract notion at best, one that is championed by policy wonks high atop a hill that is far removed from the day-to-day reality of running a medical group.
At the Blues conference, much of the dialogue centered on alienated consumers. A few horror stories were bandied about by one of the reporters (don't you just love how an anecdote can pass for a trend?), which sparked some heated exchange. I try to maintain a level-headed view of such controversies, as I naturally recoil from the Michael Moore syndrome.
After the panel concluded, a couple of Blues staffers approached me to share their own efforts at engaging consumers. These efforts go well beyond the patient portal where you can look up benefits and get a new member card. The Minnesota and Florida plans have recently launched Web sites where patients may sound off on the industry. On these sites, patients can tell their own stories. The Florida site only trims out obscene comments, so this is not a corporate snow job. The sites are fairly new, and have already drawn a fair amount of consumer feedback—both positive and negative. So who says the industry isn't listening?
Towards the Electronic Patient Record will hold its 24th annual conference on May 19, 2008 at the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center. There will be more than 300 speakers, 2,000 attendees, and 100 exhibitors on topics that include IT solutions for hospitals, IT solutions for ambulatory practices, and EMR/EHR topics for payers.
A high-tech system has been developed that could revolutionize how Canadians obtain prescription drugs. The concept revolves around a kiosk that operates like a vending machine, using advanced robotics and technology to read prescriptions and dispense more than 150 commonly prescribed drugs. A video screen links a pharmacist to the patient.