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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I’ve been told time and time again that medical travel and tourism is under discussion at the highest policy-making levels of the U.S. government and have not doubted the assertion when I have heard it. Yet last week, I was briefly stumped when someone asked me for proof that medical tourism is important enough for Congress and the White House to be interested.

I pointed at hearings conducted by the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging in June 2006:

The Globalization of Health Care: Can Medical Tourism Reduce Health Care Costs?

… but my cynical correspondent pointed out that U.S. Senate committees conduct hearings all the time, perpetually gathering testimony on all manner of issues that they promptly forget about; and indeed, I had to acknowledge that there is to date no public sign of a government task force on medical tourism or any type of follow-up. The leadership of the Senate changed in late 2006 and committee staff has changed as well.

So I did a little more digging to back up my point and found that U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt has a very public curiosity about medical tourism and travel, and even discussed it on his own blog, as recently as April, after a trip to the Far East that included a stopover in Singapore. Of Singapore’s healthcare system, Leavitt had this to say:

“So, what about the quality you say? Aside from the statistics on life expectancy already cited, let me suggest we think about this. The Government of Singapore estimates that, in 2008, over 600,000 people, including many Americans, will engage in medical tourism. They will fly to Singapore to get their care at a fraction of the price. The Singaporean Government believes by 2012 the number will exceed a 1,000,000 people a year. In order to attract these people, they are transparent with both cost and quality outcomes. Patients have more information about care in Singapore than about care they would get from their local hospital. Hmmmm.”

Hmmmm, indeed.

During a trip to India in January, Leavitt blogged:

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How much can you say about medical tourism in less than three minutes? I found out Thursday that the answer is “more than I thought,” when the PBS Nightly Business Report managed to summarize recent events in the industry in … uh … two minutes and 48 seconds, by my clock.

An edited transcript of the segment is here:

“Bill of Health”-Medical Tourism

What did PBS think was important? Aetna’s deal with Hannaford Brothers to offer surgery in Singapore; Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina setting up a subsidiary for medical travel; the American Medical Association announcing medical tourism guidelines; Intercontinental Hotel Group embracing medical travel in Latin America; etc.

Vic Lazzaro, CEO of BridgeHealth International, was among those PBS turned to for comment. The report didn’t break new ground, but it’s interesting that medical tourism has turned into the kind of story that large business news outlets — PBS, the cable news networks, major business magazines — feel they have to keep up with.

Erik Steele, D.O., a physician in Bangor, Maine is chief medical officer of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems and is on the staff of several hospital emergency rooms in the region. He has a terrific article in the Bangor Daily news, headlined, “Consider medical tourism a warning.” in which he discusses the recent news that Hannaford Bros., a supermarket chain with 27,000 employees, is offering a medical travel option as part of employee benefits. The story, initially reported out of Maine, was picked up by the Associated Press and made national news. (Link here.)

Says Dr. Steele:

“Rather than curse Hannaford for its self-interested decision, we would do well to see Hannaford as a corporate canary chirping frantically about the deteriorating conditions brought on by high health care costs in the coal mine of American business. Its action is a warning of things to come. If unheeded, it will not be Hannaford’s action that has brought about the ruin of some hospitals, but the failure of health care and other leaders in this country to listen to the canary.”

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