BY GIGI ONAG
At
their best, medical-travel agents can play an essential role as
intermediaries for global medical travel. For their home market they
can identify overseas hospitals and physicians suitable for the needs
of their clients, saving them time on research, and then can help
facilitate the travel arrangements of their clients.
Canada
Overseas Medical Services
(OMS) started operations in 2003. It has 11 partner hospitals in eight
countries, including Tan Tock Seng Hospital and National University
Hospital in Singapore, World Citi Med in the Philippines, Bumrungrad
International Hospital in Thailand, Fortis Group of Hospitals in India,
and Renji Hospital in China. The selection process is two-fold.
Firstly, for a country to be included, the company looks at whether
there is superior in-country infrastructure, near world-class medical
facilities with high ratio of successful clinical outcomes, security
and safety, fluency in English and attractive tourist spots. Then comes
the selection of the facility.
“Regardless of any international
accreditation, if the hospital meets – during an on-site visit – my
expectations of standard of international service and standard of
international patient care, I agree to sign up with them on a 10
percent referral fee for non-transplant patients,” says OMS chief
executive officer Aruna Th-Hollingshead. “Thirty-five years of
international marketing experience, worldwide travel, combined with a
medical background, has helped me to identify some of the best
physicians and services available worldwide,” she adds.
The
company tries to work with only one hospital in each destination unless
it is a large country like China and India, and while the majority of
OMS clients are from Canada, its medical travel patients also come from
other countries like the United States, Japan, Algeria and Ethiopia.
OMS
offers virtually all major medical procedures, including transplants,
as well as elective cosmetic surgeries and dental work. Interestingly,
the company observes Thailand, Singapore, India, the Philippines and
Costa Rica are popular destinations for non-transplant procedures,
while China and Colombia are popular for transplants.
“Our
patients fall into three categories – retired senior citizens going for
orthopaedic procedures like hip or knee replacement; patients between
the ages of 30 and 60 for spinal procedures; and, aging baby boomers
for cosmetic procedures. About 98 percent of our patients are from
average income bracket,” Th-Hollingshead says.
On average,
patients undergoing cosmetic surgery in Thailand spend about US$6,000
for the procedure with the additional cost of about US$1,200 for a
two-week stay at the destination inclusive of accommodation, food and
incidentals.
For a major operation, a patient pays an average of
about US$16,000 for a spinal surgery with additional spending of
US$2,000 on accommodation, food and incidentals for two weeks.
Having
been a medical traveller herself in 2003, flying to southern India for
a corrective cervical spine surgery which would have taken months on
the wait list in Canada, Th-Hollingshead takes a personal interest with
each patient especially in the post-operative care.
“We do
routine weekly follow-up call up to six months (after the procedure) to
assist the patient with any advice or issues. If they or their doctor
has any issues which require the offshore physician’s consultation, we
facilitate it promptly. To date, we have never had a case which had
complications unless it was a terminal disease,” Th-Hollingshead says,
adding that routine follow-ups for organ-transplant patients are
offered for life.
As it continues to identify potential medical
travel destinations, OMS is keen on getting one thing for its patients:
“Zero wait time is really on top of the list. Other criteria such as
doctors with high credentials, state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment,
quality nursing care, medical concierge service and lower cost are
already a given.”
The Philippines
Vinchu Lapid, managing director of Philippine-based Beautiphil Health Holidays,
refers to her company as “more of a medical-travel consolidator and
medical-concierge provider”, than an agent. Lapid notes that in many
cases, the patient already has an idea which doctor or hospital they
would like to seek treatment from.
“The patient corresponds with
the doctor first, and then when the client asks for the doctor to
arrange or recommend accommodations and airport transfers, the doctor
refers them to us,” she says. Beautiphil then enables medical travel by
bringing together the different ancillary services provided by
third-party companies such as air travel and hotel accommodation under
one roof.
In fact, although many patients contact them in this
way, the company is able to help in all matters. “When they don’t (have
a particular doctor in mind), we give them options – a range of
doctors, clinics and hospitals. We send the doctor’s resume, and as
much as possible we let the patient communicate directly with the
doctor even before leaving their country. If the patient is not
comfortable with the doctor from the outset or if the doctor is not
comfortable with the patient, we then look for an alternative.”
Beautiphil’s
medical partners include the Beverly Hills Medical Group, the Eye
Republic Ophthalmology Center, the Rosero Medical Clinic and the Asian
Hospital.
With the country just newly aware to the potential of
medical travel, overseas patients who beat a path to its doors are
people who have some working knowledge of the Philippines.
In
fact, majority of Beautiphil patients are balikbayans (returning
overseas Filipinos) – including those who no longer have close
relatives in the country – as well as Australians. They come for dental
procedures like caps and crowns, and cosmetic surgeries like
rhinoplasty, eyelid surgery and breast implants.
“To date, none
of our patients have had any serious ailment that needs medical
treatment. All their procedures have been elective and the doctors we
have worked with are conservative and very careful,” Lapid says. “Part
of our package of services is to accompany the patient to post-op
consultations, the first of which is usually two or three days after
surgery or discharge. We make sure that the patient does not leave for
home until he has been declared fit to travel by the attending
physician.”
Challenges and opportunities
For medical-travel agents like OMS which sends patients abroad, the challenges come on two fronts.
“Most
(doctors in North America) scare their patients with stories of poor
quality service in developing countries and of the consequence of
long-distance flights after a major procedure. At the other end,
hospitals do not offer a reasonable referral fee. Physicians’ fee is
excluded from the final bill. Only 5 percent is offered as the agent’s
fee. Most hospitals conjure many methods to deprive agents of their
referral fee, while lending zero financial support for administration
and advertising,” Th-Hollingshead says.
On the other hand, the
challenges for medical-travel agents in emerging markets like the
Philippines involve the lack of basic fundamentals to stay competitive
in a robust industry.
“Although we have good doctors and medical
facilities at par or even better than other countries, the
infrastructure is not yet in place. Our premier hospitals are not in
the locations of our tourist destinations. There are no medical
facilities in Boracay. There are no rest and recreation facilities near
St Luke’s Hospital. There is still lack of integration between medical
facilities (as well as health and wellness facilities) and rest and
recreation facilities such as beaches and resorts. The different
stakeholders in the Philippine medical-travel industry need to unite
and get their acts together,” Lapid observes.
But as the new year
begins, both Th-Hollingshead and Lapid are optimistic that medical
travel will continue to expand as rising medical costs in advanced
countries lead its citizens to look for high-quality healthcare at
affordable costs in other places.
“More patients from the UK, US
and Canada will seek offshore treatment in the absence of reasonable
insurance and quick access to procedures unavailable in their own
country,” Th-Hollingshead says.
Lapid agrees: “I think that
recognition by medical insurance companies and HMOs abroad will be a
big factor in the growth of the medical-travel industry.”
