Medical tourism or health tourism has been growing at a rapid phase. A report of Medical Tourism by Deloitte is a good ready on this. But even with this optimistic view of the future for this industry, I feel it
can still do better.

There are various issues existing today, that are acting as dampers to the growth trajectory. Realizing them, accepting them and finally resolving them will greatly help the medical tourism industry as a
whole.

Following are the list of issues, as I see it, which needs to be addressed for this industry to realize its true potential.

1. Insurance – The lack of insurance coverage for most of the insurance providers in US and Europe is drastically limiting the number of patients traveling for health medical
   treatments abroad.
2. Malpractice laws – One of the reasons why treatment abroad is cheap is that, in most countries, there are not a lot of malpractice laws to protect the patients. Doctors and health
   medical facilities in these medical tourism destinations don’t get
   insurance coverage for this, there by bringing their costs down.
   But this is also a limiting factor for medical tourists who are
   concerned, if any un-eventuality does occur.
3. Transparency – Medical tourism industry is too scattered and a person traveling for treatment abroad can get utterly confused as which medical tourism company to go with (if to
   go with at all), which hospital and doctor to choose, is the
   hospital and doctor sufficiently certified, what kind of
   certifications should I consider, what if the health medical
   facility is not JCI certified, the list of questions is endless.
   There is no recognized source to provide such information at one
   location, so people are left to the mercy of the Internet for
   information.
4. Government initiative – Governments in the developing nations are realizing the potential of this industry. They have started to act towards bringing in initiatives and programs to
   attract patients to their country, but its not enough. If the
   governments set proper rules regulations and guidelines, and there
   is a consolidated effort to capitalize on the opportunity, medical
   tourism industry will have a good breeding ground to grow.
5. Infrastructure – Building infrastructure is a huge task to under take by any means, but this is one of the major reasons why medical tourists choose one medical tourism
   destinations over the other. If prices is not a major concern,
   medical travelers will travel to Singapore rather then get their
   treatment in Thailand or treatment India.

There are some of the major factors inhibiting the growth of the medical tourism industry. With consolidated effort to tackle these issues, the true potential of this industry can actually be realized.
Though some of these tasks are mammoth in nature, acting on them will
benefit the industry in the long run.

ClinicsOfWorld.com