Businesses that are involved in providing packaged MTm related products and services similar to Travel Agents. However, Medical Tourism Facilitators (MTFs) are difference as they provide information related to various complex surgeries abroad. MTF is a person or a company that helps to coordinate international patient’s medical travel arrangements to the host-country for medical treatment, connects patients with the hospital in the host-country, and negotiates on behalf of the MTs, their medical, accommodation and travel plans.
Published in Chapter:
Role, Rules, and Regulations for Global Medical Tourism Facilitators
Copyright: © 2019
|Pages: 20
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-8434-6.ch006
Abstract
Global medical travel has transformed medical travel/tourism facilitator's role, making it more sophisticated and globally competitive with their presence on the internet, and providing medical tourism packages catering to patient-centered healthcare needs. The important role played by medical tourism facilitators cannot be ignored along with rules and regulations required to accredit these medical travel companies. They act as mediators between the potential patients and the private healthcare providers, physicians in the global medical tourism supply chain, along with airlines and hotel, thus, reducing a medical traveler's worries regarding surgery abroad. Facilitators assist the potential medical tourists to plan and make healthcare decisions for travelling abroad, choosing and matching the patient with the specialty hospital for surgery, country and making all travel, accommodation and visa arrangements prior to travel, coordination between doctor and patient, personal nursing attendant, follow-up care and possibility of sightseeing, rest and recovery at the host-country of treatment. Thus, the chapter examines the reasons for the growth of global healthcare through medical travel/tourism in developing countries such as India, Thailand, Mexico, Poland and Malaysia and identifies the role, rules and regulations required for accredited medical tourism facilitators to connect patients with the healthcare providers in various countries to meet specific healthcare needs.