I’ve just spent several hours reading blogs about medical tourism and finished feeling that blogs were little else than a marketing voice of travel firms and providers. When you look at the language used it is overwhelmingly the language of advertising. “Get to the airport with your passport.” “We only partner hospitals that have shown the same attention to safety and quality as U.S. hospitals.” And so on, and on. Superlatives abound and then with a little help from search engines I find this was written by an association that is connected to a health insurer promoting policies to employers that include coverage for overseas hospital services!!

I don’t like to be cynical but who can you trust? Some 500,000 will travel abroad this year for health services so we expect the big boys to form associations to make a dollar. We know the U.S. health system is run by lawyers and we know that many who travel abroad for dental, cosmetic and surgical services are not particularly wealthy or uninsured. What most patients say is that they can have the treatment they want safely in an accredited hospital at about a 70 percent saving. It makes sense but buyer beware.

If you read the ads for hospitals in some countries you would be persuaded - you are a targeted and profiled consumer. Remember that there are good apples and bad apples BUT we at ThaiMed Associates will only work with hospitals we know and trust and which are internationally accredited. We believe there is a place in the medical tourism market for a boutique firm that starts with the patient not the provider.