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American Medical Association provides guidance on medical tourism

Jessica Wapner

1 New York

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The American Medical Association (AMA) has drawn up guidelines on medical tourism for patients, employers, insurers, and medical travel coordinators. The guidelines call for better public awareness about the need to coordinate care before and after operations. They also advocate that financial incentives to obtain care outside the US do not inappropriately limit the alternatives available to patients or restrict referral options and that patients are referred only to internationally accredited medical institutions.

The association plans to introduce model legislation based on these principles for evaluation by state law makers.

An estimated 150 000 US residents obtained health care abroad in 2006, attracted by lower prices, which are important to people without insurance or who have inadequate insurance. Hip replacement surgery in the United States costs $18 000-$26 000 (£9000-£13 000; {euro}11 500-{euro}17 000), whereas in India it costs $9000.

Some people also travel abroad for care that is . . . [Full text of this article]


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The AMA emphasises the positive role of accreditation in the safety of medical and dental tourists
Stephen T Green
bmj.com, 22 Jul 2008 [Full text]
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