Korea's Medical Tourism Push Can Benefit Korean And Global Pharma - Medical Korea 2011

"More [U.S.] employers are now willing to consider changing their benefit plan structure for their employees to access international medical care," medical tourism facilitator says.

SEOUL - South Korea's bid to top Thailand, India and Singapore as an Asian hub for health care services, particularly medical tourism, should be beneficial to both Korean and global pharmas, Seoul officials said.

Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare and the ministry's health care body, the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, invited health care, medical tourism and insurance experts to Seoul April 12-14 for Medical Korea 2011 - 2nd Global Healthcare & Medical Tourism Conference.

"It is hard to tell at this point which one - either local Korean pharma companies or foreign pharmas - will benefit more, but our drive to draw more foreign patients and treat them here in Korea will generate more demand for the drugs from [both]," KHIDI President Kim Bup-wan told PharmAsia News on the sidelines of the conference.

"After surgery even now, foreign patients are now leaving Korea with drugs for three-month use in their homelands," Kim said.

Medical Tourism's Legal, Ethical And Insurance Issues

Panelists at the Seoul conference discussed various issues that could either help or undermine global medical tourism.

Of the optimists, Phil Midden, business development manager at medical tourism facilitator Companion Global Healthcare, said he believes there is significant growth potential in global medical travel although the market "is in its infancy stage" now.

"More [U.S.] employers are now willing to consider changing their benefit plan structure for their employees to access international medical care. Substantial opportunity exists with medical travel since it can benefit employees, employers and insurers," he said.

U.S. employers may be more likely to include medical travel options for their employees because of the growing number of Joint Commission International accredited hospitals in countries like Korea, which can ease concerns about the quality of cross-border care. Midden said JCI hospitals have grown to around 300 worldwide since the private non-profit began international accreditations in 1999.

Yonsei University Severance Hospital is Korea's first JCI-accredited hospital.

However, Midden also pointed to negative factors that continue to hinder the growth of medical tourism. U.S. health insurers have been slow to adopt or implement fully-insured benefit plans with medical travel incentives. Also, there is still a negative perception of outsourcing health care, and there are concerns about continuity of care after treatment in foreign countries.

In addition, it is still difficult to compare surgical outcomes between hospitals in a patient's home country and foreign hospitals.

"Consumers choose a hospital by comparing the prices and quality of care provided ... and that naturally begs a question, can patients really measure the quality of care? My answer is no or not easily, at best," said Jeong Heon-Jae from Johns Hopkins University. "There is no generally accepted measure to quantify various aspects of quality of care."

KHIDI President Kim said the organization will sign a memorandum of understanding with health insurance firm Cigna International to help establish Korea as an attractive medical tourism destination (Also see "Korea Expects MOU with Cigna To Attract More Medical Tourism Patients, Possibly From China - Medical Korea 2011 Conference" - Scrip, 13 Apr, 2011.).

Korea also recently signed an MOU with the United Arab Emirates to bring patients to Korea for medical treatments not available in UAE (Also see "Korea Signs Healthcare MOU With UAE; Seeks Out More Global Partners To Draw Medical Tourism To Korea" - Scrip, 17 Mar, 2011.).

-Peter Chang ([email protected])

[Editor's note: This article appears courtesy of PharmAsiaNews.com, Elsevier Business Intelligence's source for Asian biotech and pharmaceutical news. Register for a 30-day risk free trial.]