Medical Tourism In Mexico: International Business Opportunity

According to some sources medical tourism or health tourism is the travel of people to another country for the purpose of obtaining medical treatment in that country. Traditionally, people would travel from less developed countries to major medical centers in highly developed countries for medical treatment that was unavailable in their own communities

At least 85,000 Americans choose to travel abroad for medical procedures each year, according to a recent report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Treatment includes dental implants, hip and knee replacements, heart valve replacements and bypass surgery.

With this information more companies are viewing a huge market that until now has not been analyze in detail. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that that healthcare services and medical treatments in the US cost significantly more than in Mexico.

This increasing expenses sector have now show to foreign medical service companies and patients a great choice through Mexican health tourism sector to be a particularly attractive prospect, with fewer barriers to entry, a ready market and existing healthcare infrastructure.

Year by year , demand has been increasing and the heal infrastructure has been developing in order to offer better places and technology to international patients that are looking for a trust place and reliable health services. According to this demand private hospitals in Mexico are growing by double digit after years of stunted growth. The hospital & medical clinic construction boom has been in small clinics & surgery centers, as well as big high quality hospitals.

According to the website “Patient beyond the border” the potential savings range from 20% to 90% reductions in price compared with US inpatient prices, depending on the type and location of the procedures. However, we note that the lower cost of healthcare services is not necessarily the main driver of medical tourism - the availability and quality of the treatments, as well as factors such as political stability also dictate a patient's choice to travel to another country for medical treatments.

With this background companies cannot be doing all effort, so that Mexican government has been developing support program and implementing strategically actions for the development of medical tourism in Mexico.

Mexico's government has drafted plans develop its medical tourism sector in order to boost the national economy during the current global downturn. Its strategy to encourage US patients to come across the border is expected to increase the country's US dollar revenue.

However, we believe that the expected increase in the number of medical tourists will put more pressure on existing medical facilities and medical staff. These have lead hospital manager`s to reinforce their plan in order to improve patients experience and satisfaction. Some action we can mention is that they have been working on customer service by constantly training in order to attract patients to Mexico delivering a good experience during the staying .

In case of many medical procedures, the Mexican doctors have more experience than US doctors, as either the procedure has not yet been approved in the USA by the FDA or has only recently been approved.

Medical tourism is an untapped niche in our country. There are many reasons for the increase in number of people prepared to get medical treatments like heart surgery, dental work, cosmetic surgery, orthopedic treatments and weight loss surgery in Mexico.

Innovation nowadays is the most important factor to be successful in business. This is not only to have a new market it is also included to be better and generate value for the customers.

Reference

(1) Debata BR, Kumar S, Patnaik B, Mahapatra SS. Evaluating medical tourism enablers with interpretive

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