Dr. Andrew Weil, MD, is a prolific author, perhaps best known for establishing and popularizing the field of integrative medicine, which combines conventional medical treatments and alternative treatments for which there is some high-quality scientific evidence of their safety and effectiveness. His web site, DrWeil.com, is among the most visited medical sites on the Internet. The “Ask Dr. Weil” column, from the site, is a cottage industry unto itself; “Dr. Weil has raised dispensing health advice to an art form,” says reviewer Erica Jorgensen at Amazon of his bestseller Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Physical and Spiritual Well-Being.

But I didn’t know until yesterday that Dr. Weil had ever had anything to say about medical tourism. I really should have known better. In an “Ask Dr. Weil” column from last fall, he confronts the issues involved in medical travel head-on, concluding:

Keep an eye on the growing trend of medical tourism. I predict it will become more prominent in coming years.

This, in response to a writer who said he was “appalled” that a friend was going to India for heart surgery.

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The Northern Colorado Business Report last week did a story about medical travel and tourism that featured Jennifer Blankenship, a sufferer of multiple sclerosis who needs stem cell therapy. The cost in the United States: $100,000.

The cost in Costa Rica for the equivalent treatment: $7,000.

The article link:

Medical Tourism Could Cure High Costs

Blankenship is heading to Costa Rica next month. The article, by health issues reporter Steve Porter, also spends some time talking about U.S. insurance companies and medical tourism: When will they start bringing it under their umbrella, as a care option? Perhaps soon, according to Daryl Richard, vice president of communications for UnitedHealth International.

“UnitedHealth International is currently researching the many issues and challenges related to medical travel and hopes to decide within a few months whether it will design a formal medical travel product for its customers,” Richard is quoted as saying.

If anyone still doubts that medical travel and tourism are having a serious impact on discussions about the future of healthcare delivery in the United States, perhaps they should click on over to this “Let’s Talk Health Care” blog post by Charlie Baker, president and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Inc., one of New England’s leading non-profit health plans. I know the discussion about medical travel has been going on within Harvard Pilgrim for some time, having discussed it last year with Jim Sabin, chairman of the company’s Ethics Advisory Group, who has also blogged about the subject.

Baker notes that — according to a study by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions — the number of people leaving the U.S. to access care in other countries is now growing at a faster rate than the number of people coming from other countries to the US to seek care. “A lot faster,” he says, and he goes on to discuss the profound implications this may have for healthcare in America. The Deloitte study suggests that U.S. healthcare providers will lose almost $16 billion in revenue in 2007 to outbound medical tourism.

“If Deloitte’s trends are correct, the size of that loss will grow to almost $70 billion by 2010 — as much as 10% of total revenues by 2010,” Baker says.

Vic Lazzaro, CEO of BridgeHealth International, thinks that the Deloitte conclusions are perhaps alarmist

“That under this scenario there will be a loss of revenue to hospitals and facilities in the U.S., over time, cannot be denied,” Lazarro commented. “We also would be surprised, though, if that impact was significant for any one hospital or physician.

“We would hope those factors in the U.S. would result in increasing focus on quality, outcomes reporting, service and cost reduction, as this is now what is being delivered at the international hospital destinations.”

The Deloitte study found that nearly 40 percent of American healthcare consumers would be willing to travel outside the country for care if the quality was comparable and the cost was cut in half or more. Highlights of the study include:

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Most medical patients aren’t aware of their rights, other than generally. In the United States, particularly, they can be excused — patient rights vary depending on the state in which a person lives and what protections and recourse that may be offered by an insurer or HMO. Patient Bills of Rights passed both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives in 2002, but they were different versions and, ultimately, no bill was able to pass both bodies.

The President’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality adopted what amounted to a consumer bill of rights and responsibilities (note that with the rights come responsibilities) in 1998 which is, as the name of the commission suggests, only advisory in nature. Many, but not all, health plans and healthcare organizations formally subscribe to the principles in the commission’s final report. It is ten years old, and non-binding, but it is better than nothing.

Medical travel and tourism was barely heard of in the United States by 1998, and was not a consideration in the debate over a federal Patient Bill of Rights in 2001-2002. Medical tourism has only more recently come under scrutiny in Congress. Regarding their rights, medical tourists and travelers have mostly been told: “You’re on your own.”

So it’s good to see medical tourism companies grappling with the concept of patient rights and responsibilities, as BridgeHealth International has. The company today released “Clients’ and Traveling Patients’ Rights and Duties,” a statement that is meant to represent the company’s values as well as representing, broadly, the rights that a BridgeHealth client can expect when traveling overseas for medical care.

Reading through the document, it occurred to me that in it are embodied the rights that any patient should expect to have anywhere — not just when traveling abroad — but that several of the enumerated rights are not common in the United States. In particular, do patients have a timely, thorough and documented process for registering complaints? And do they always receive a detailed statement of account with an explanation of all expenses incurred during treatment? Perhaps both are routine in some facilities, but I think the perception is that neither is commonplace.

I’d love to hear what readers think. Is the BridgeHealth statement of rights and duties on the money? Does it go far enough? What, if anything, would you add to it?