The story of modern medical tourism in the United States, as told by the media, has changed over time and now comes in a package of inevitability. It hit home for me last week, when the American Medical Association acknowledged medical travel and tourism and set some broad guidelines (reported here) and, again today, with a significant story by MSNBC Health Writer JoNel Aleccia that advances the storyline for consumers very nearly to a frontier that, until recently, was the province of industry insiders.

Hip surgery in India? Insurance may pay:
Burgeoning benefits could send hordes of U.S. patients abroad for care

The paragraph that jumped off the screen at me was this:

Once the province of the poor and uninsured, medical tourism is gaining attention of industry giants such as CIGNA, Aetna and Blue Cross/Blue Shield, who say they either have begun or are considering pilot programs that provide limited coverage for foreign care. One Montana firm, Employee Benefit Management Services Inc., recently began offering medial tourism plans to its 120 self-insured clients in the Northwest.

The media’s understanding of medical travel and tourism has finally caught up to the actual story — which is that it is no longer a “gee whiz, would you look at that!” drive-by kind of tale. The new narrative, and the truth, is that medical tourism is increasingly accepted by consumers and by healthcare payers as part and parcel of how healthcare will be delivered to consumers in the United States.

BridgeHealth International is a leader among companies seeking to provide consumers, HMOs, employers and other payer organizations with second-to-none healthcare options in a new era of international healthcare competition.

“We are assembling a wide selection of dentists, physicians and accredited hospitals and are actively expanding the network to serve the needs of employer, insurers, benefit plan payers, third party administrators and consumers,” BridgeHealth CEO Vic Lazzaro said in an interview in December, and the company has been refining its offerings over the last six months, launching its new web site in May.

“You’re beginning to see the point now that it’s changing from a market primarily of individuals without coverage or insurance to a circumstance in which this is going to be adopted by U.S. health insurance plans to extend to a much larger U.S. population,” said Dr. Arnold Milstein, chief physician for Mercer Health & Benefits, an international health care consulting agency, and medical director for Pacific Business Group on Health, which represents 50 large regional employers.