Medical Tourism Products in Health Insurance Jon Carpenter Managing Director ACII Morgan Price International Healthcare Ltd
Medical tourist? Could be : a medical tourist is someone who travels outside of their own country for surgery or elective treatment of a medical, dental or cosmetic condition. I would NOT include: spa and wellness travellers; "accidental" medical tourists (business travellers and holiday makers who fall ill while abroad and are admitted to hospital) BUT I would include expatriates who access healthcare in a foreign country.
Current products Travel Insurance no cover for elective travel for treatment Specialised travel cover for after the event complications EU domestic public health cover in other EU countries (but only at cheaper or same cost, not for everything; Domestic PMI usually no overseas elective cover International PMI cover within area/country of cover but expensive. NEW product domestic BUT only providing cover abroad? Difficult concept to sell Small niche market Doesn t naturally sit with the brokers who sell PMI
Medical tourism an International product? Data on medical tourists Poor data Inaccurate numbers / more patients than hospital beds!! UK market size example approx 60,000 75,000 med tourists in 2010* 1% of the total UK PMI market 0.1% of the population *Treamentabroad.com/blog
Medical tourism an International product? Data on expatriates Again inaccurate BUT: Saudi Arabia 6m + UAE 2m+ UK 1m+ / + 1m UK expatriates elsewhere USA 10m+ Within IPMI industry assumption is that there are at least 100m+ expatriates around the world This is the market to aim at
Who are the clients? Domestic non-pmi customers who can t access the public system; Self pay clients; Domestic pmi customers looking for something better/cheaper; International pmi customers
Medical tourism Growing in popularity in certain parts of the world usually where self pay or private healthcare dominates any national cover; Will surely increase in popularity in western world when the public systems fail to deliver; These are the same markets that IPMI insurers are looking at/working in;
Medical Tourism V IPMI With self pay or medical tourism issues remain for many people: Sounds complicated; Long way from home and support network; Don t speak the language; What if something goes wrong? With IPMI: Can be easily sold and is, by brokers; Somebody else arranges everything; Multilingual insurance staff deal with the providers Insurance covers the treatment and complications.
Insured Medical tourism Drivers for client: Access to treatment more quickly morally acceptable Should be cheaper than domestic or international PMI; Somebody else arranging it Complications covered Access to private facilities +Tourism Drivers for insurer : Cost containment Appealing to new market segment Something new innovation
Current IPMI thinking Worldwide coverage or worldwide excluding USA; Increased mobility of clientele; Regionalisation of products; Country specific location eg cover in specific country or small area only; Higher and increasing medical costs; Western national health systems failing; Looking for that NEW thing.
IPMI product Client Broker Insurer TPA Hospital
IMT product Client Broker Insurer TPA Medical tourist co Overseas Hospital
Turkey specifically Popular tourist destination already: 2010 28m tourists and $20bn revenue Ease of access situated between east and west Diverse nationalities German, Bulgarian, British, now being overtaken by tourists from Iran, Syria, GCC and Middle East; Great medical facilities over 1200 hospitals of which 500+ are private; High number of internationally accredited by various organisations; Already attracting high numbers of medical tourists - 2010 approx 165,000* medical tourists, ranking Turkey tenth most popular health tourism destination Projected to grow by around 32% by 2014 [*Turkish Statistical Institute and the Central Bank survey]
Cost of treatment Turkey United Kingdom Hip replacement 4000 Hip replacement 8400 Angioplasty 3400 Angioplasty 8400 Cataract 950 Cataract 2500 [All figures approx and from www.treatmentabroad.com]
Pros & Cons for clients Pro s Con s Access to high quality facilities; Attractive pricing for self pay and insured clients; Location to attract visitors from east and west; Ease of access; Regularity of flights (300 a day); Language especially for western tourists; Distance from support network; Will costs savings be eroded? MedMal cover is it high enough and what if something goes wrong?
Pros & Cons for insurers Pro s Con s Access to high quality facilities; Attractive pricing for self pay and insured clients; Location Ease of access; Regularity of flights (300 a day); Language amongst all hospital staff issue especially for western tourists; Are costs savings be eroded? MedMal cover is it high enough and what if something goes wrong liability for insurers? Do the providers want to negotiate long term deals already getting a lot of clients on self pay basis..
Issues to be addressed Demonstrable long term package pricing deals for insurers; Continued commitment to quality; Genuine international staff with language skills maybe distinct units as per the suggested Turkish Government program ; Western level indemnity insurance in case anything goes wrong and track record of case law to show it is dealt with; Concierge services within hospitals to deal with incoming patients; As competition increases, development of USP s compared to other places.
Don t compete work with Similarities in client base; Similarities in purchase drivers; IPMI and domestic insurers have clients already ; Medical tourism companies have infrastructure to arrange travel; Certain countries have capacity of high quality hospital beds; IPMI insurers always looking to reduce costs; Medical inflation; Hot spots for IPMI middle east, far east, eastern Europe; Hot spots for medical tourists originating.;
Jon Carpenter - BIO Specialist International health insurance provider; Product design, sales and marketing; Managing agent and broker; Worldwide client base; 20 years UK and International medical insurance experience