Guest Blog: Medical Tourism in LTC
The following is a guest blog from Anthony Cirillo:
In the hospital industry there is a concept known as medical tourism, the idea that people in the U.S. would go to a foreign country for healthcare. Millions do. Some go because the prices are cheaper. Some go because another country offers treatments for procedures considered only experimental here. Indeed some health insurers even have models of care for sending patients abroad.
Having done some medical tourism consulting overseas, I tend to see what lessons we can learn from this on a local basis. One of the things that clearly strikes me is the idea that healthcare is not necessarily local.
For example, Lowe's home improvement recently announced that all of the cardiac surgery for employees would go to the Cleveland Clinic. It made me pause. Living just miles from Lowe's headquarters (near Charlotte, N.C.) and surrounded by very good major medical centers, it had to send a shock wave locally to these hospitals. Lowe's realizes that while the initial cost may be higher (or not), they are paying for the quality that the Clinic has and betting that overall costs (fueled typically by possible readmissions, etc.) will be lower because their employees will be taken care of right the first time.
So what about nursing homes? Will people travel beyond their own locale for care? Will families shop around? Certainly some industry mavericks are betting on it. USA Today has reported that a "small but steadily growing number" of U.S. residents "are moving across the border" into Mexican nursing homes, which provide care at a "fraction" of the price of U.S. facilities. 40,000 to 80,000 U.S. retirees currently live in Mexico, but no data exist on the number of retirees who live in nursing homes.
Residents caution that quality of care varies greatly in an industry that is just getting off the ground here. Many Mexican nursing homes are "run out of private homes," and, as a result, "regulation by state health departments is often spotty," USA Today reports.
I am fascinated by this concept for the nursing home industry. It does not have to mean going to another country (though I have also read about a U.S. family sending a loved one back to India) but it could mean that the best place will not always be the one closest.
This certainly changes the complexion of marketing. And it calls more for figuring out how to leverage word of mouth and patient stories in the offline and online world. And no doubt in the future these decisions to use distant providers will not only be fueled by quality metrics but also on metrics surrounding the healthcare experience.
So how does all this "move" you? Send me an email at Cirillo@4wardfast.com and let's continue the discussion.
Anthony Cirillo, FACHE, ABC is a speaker, health care consultant, senior advocate and blogger. He consults with long-term care facilities and is available for management retreats and association keynotes. He is the author of "Who Moved My Dentures?" His company, Fast Forward Consulting empowers organizations to change the healthcare experience and leverage it in their marketing. Hear him speak at AHCA in October. More at www.4wardfast.com and www.anthonycirillo.com.