Tackling hazards of cross-border healthcare

The essence of transparency and ethics is often missing when any healthcare or medical tourism company represents certain specific hospitals or medical establishments directly or indirectly. The role and responsibility of any medical tourism company is to provide authentic and unbiased information to facilitate the concerned persons to take the best medical decision. Any healthcare tourism establishment should even discourage patients to cross the border for medical assistance if it is not necessary. This is a critical area which requires to be dealt with very sincerely and ethically.

Following are a few factors absolutely detrimental for patients to decide upon cross-border medical assistance:

1.      Inadequate medical information

2.      Incomplete medical information

3.      Lack of knowledge

4.      Single specific past medical experience of any relatives/friends

5.      No cross-border medical insurance facility

6.      No cross-border supervisory union or model for healthcare and insurance

7.      Home and host cross-border coordination model not in place

It is high time that all related regulators and governments look into the situation thoroughly in order to facilitate persons from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and other countries who are opting for best and cost effective medical assistance in India.

There is no authentic overview of the cross-border health insurance market in Asia. There is no methodology adopted to link various data to offer cross-border insurance. Insurance companies should take proactive initiative to offer cross-border medical insurance to the visitors for a smooth healthcare experience abroad or, to be precise, in India. The requirement is nothing new. Comprehensive data set of cross-border insurance in this Asian territory is highly needed. We find that cross-border medical insurance is sizeable but there is no provider.  We also find that the demand of cross-border insurance has increased over the last decade.

The increasing demand for cross-border medical insurance should be recognized for supervisory and coordination purposes. A centralized ‘cross border medical union’ in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and other countries is highly desirable to align with India for a smooth healthcare experience.

Such a cross-border medical insurance model can help the medical assistance seekers in many ways. Two of the following would be the most effective benefits for them:

· Payment to hospital by the health insurance company on behalf of the cross-border medical assistant seeker in India will ensure proper due diligence through inbuilt filters, which will eliminate wrong billing, unwanted tests, surgery and medical exploitation to a large extent and

· Eliminate unofficial currency carrying risks or illegal dealings in foreign currency. This will also provide a peace of mind to the patients in a foreign country.

* Anjan Majumdar is CEO, Excellentiam India