Thanks for joining us at Medvoy on our new website. Medvoy is a physician led, doctor to doctor globally integrated referral platform. Our goal is to provide our professional community of members with tools they need to remove the barriers to global care.
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One of the major barriers to expansion of medical tourism on a mass scale is the willingness of doctors to participate in the process. There are several things getting in the way:
1. With a shortage of physicians in the US, doctors are busy enough. The are eager to shift their payor mixes from low reimbursment to higher paying patients, but , with the exception of doctors starting practice, they don’t need more patients that might be a headache.
2. Doctors are used to a doctor-to-doctor referral model, not a patient- to- facilitator to institution model. They will continue to push back until there is a comfortable global healthcare referral platform.
3. Doctors are suspect about the value offered by facilitators. Unless they see a tangible return on investment, they are unlikely to engage intermediaries who they see as non-medical professional trying to skim revenue from an industry that is overhyped.
Medical travel is in the early stages of its life cycle. One of the tipping points will be when providers have confidence in the system and the business model.
Arlen D Meyers, MD, MBA
www.medvoy.com
www.careconnectix.com
The MedVoy website now has chat functionality enabled. Patients can now chat in real time with an expert which allows patients’ questions to be answered immediately and to deliver high quality customer service.
Several US based hospitals and provider organizations are looking for answers when it comes to how to attract inbound, non-US patients to their facilities and providers. In some instances, for example, as much as 1.5-2.0% of gross revenue can originate from inbound medical travelers, many of which pay for care with cash.
Here are some success factors to consider when building an inbound medical travel unit:
1. Tight referral networks to non-US physicians
2. Hospital infrastructure dedicated to inbound patients
3. A physician staff willing and able to accomodate the needs of inbound patients
4. Travel and hospitality destinations that are attractive to inbound patients
5. Non-hospital travel services that are user friendly-airport, customs, visas, etc
6. Profitable product and service offerings
7. Telehealth and telemedicine connections for pre and post care
8. Accomodations for insurance, cash or other revenue cycle management
9. Strong sales and marketing functions
10. Easy to get to
11.Package pricing with transparency
12.Quality metrics with transparency
Consider this “doctor’s dozen” when trying to attract foreign patients. Experience indicates that successfully accomodating non-US patients requires a substantial modification of existing policies and procedures.
Arlen D Meyers, MD, MBA
www.medvoy.com
www.careconnectix.com
By now, you’ve heard all the hype about the potential growth of the medical travel industry and how US patients are fleeing the country to get affordable care. Unfortunately, the experts agree, that there are few reliable statistics about the size and growth of the market, there are no common definitions of a medical traveler, comparisons of revenues and costs are hard to make, and there remain persistent, nagging barriers to widespread adoption by patients, payers and physicians.
That said, investors are still clinging to the promise of big returns fueled by patients losing their health benefits because of high unemployment, the aging population requiring more units of care and exploding costs of healthcare. If you think the medical travel industry is set to explode, there are some areas of investment to consider:
Foreign Healthcare infrastructure
Foreign Travel and hospitality infrastructure
Tools and support companies
Supporting global healthcare insurance and travel products
Firms in the medical travel supply chain
Expatriate retirement health cities and communities
Like other industry sectors, gold, for example, you can invest in the product itself, the people who create the product, or investments that pools risks, like mutual funds or exchange traded funds.
Look for companies in markets where the supply of care does not meet the demands of a growing middle class, that provide products and services delivering low, cost high volume care, and that provide platforms and infrastructure designed to reduce transaction costs for billing and collecting and value-based information.
With more and more patients seeking care away from home, there is an opportunity for the hotel and hospitality industry to offer customized services to patients recovering from surgery and treatments and their companions. Neither a hospital nor a hotel, a surgical hotel is a place designed to provide a level of care below that required in a hospital, but yet accommodates the healing needs of patients in a comfortable environment.
So, what does a surgical hotel offer?
How does a hotel providing services to a postoperative patients and their companions provide value and differentiate themselves?
A surgical hotel, part hospital-part hotel, would offer the following:
1. location convenient to healthcare facilities
2. transportation to facilities/airport/other
3. availability of emergency medical care
4. amenities
5. sensitivity to the needs of specific postop patients; connected rooms.
6. things to do for companions
7. information and communication technology links with providers
8. alternative/complementary services for postop patient
9. security
10. privacy/confidentiality in check in and exits
11. disability accommodations in architecture, transportation vehicles
12. medical concierge
13. accommodate in-room stay by nurse or companion
14. availability of equipment to take vital signs by medical professional
15. availability of wound management supplies
16. online medical education and postop care resources
17. nutrition counselor, special dietary restrictions
18. evacuation preferences
19. brand awareness and snob appeal
20. new design for bedding and furniture?
21. allergy free environment
22. medication reminder system (part of automatic wake-up call system?)
23. mini-kitchen facilities
24. real time patient feedback and request system
25. panic button
26. prevention of nosocomial (need a new word for hotel acquired) infections
27. modified housekeeping schedule
28. separate parking a minimal distance to room
29. wheelchair management
30. quiet
31. bathroom amenities (antibacterial soap, hand lotion, etc)
32. antibacterial surfaces on furniture
33. billing and collecting interface with medical insurance ?
34. disposable cell phones for companions
35. pet accommodations?
The global medical travel industry in rapidly growing and expected to reach $1B by 2012. Developers and the hospitality industry have an opportunity to participate and profit by offering differentiated, value added services to patients and their family members and companions that accompany them for care away from home.
