May 21, 2008
Patients with Passports:
Ethical Issues in Medical Tourism
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
4:00 - 6:00 pm
Harvard Medical School
MEC Amphitheater, 2nd floor
260 Longwood Avenue, Boston
David Boucher, MPH, FACHE, Assistant Vice President, Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina and Managing Director, Companion Global Healthcare;
I. Glenn Cohen, JD, Assistant Professor, Harvard Law School and Academic Fellow and Lecturer on Law, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, Harvard Law School;
Maggi Grace, Author, State of the Heart: A Medical Tourist’s True Story of Lifesaving Surgery in India and Consultant, who testified before the U.S. Congress on medical travel;
Josef Woodman, global consumer healthcare advocate; President, Healthy Travel Company; and Author, Patients Beyond Borders: Everybody’s Guide to Affordable, World-Class Medical Tourism; and
Mildred Z. Solomon, EdD, Associate Clinical Professor of Social Medicine, Medical Ethics and Anaesthesia, Harvard Medical School, moderator.
Should medical travel be welcomed, shunned, or accepted as simply one more aspect of globalization?
In 2007, 150,000 Americans traveled abroad for medical care, most often to receive health care services at a fraction of the cost they would encounter at home. Joint Commission International, an arm of the Joint Commission has accredited 130 medical facilities in a wide array of countries catering to international patients. Numerous health travel organizations have emerged to link U.S. patients with out-of-country providers, and for several countries medical tourism is a major source of income. Advocates claim that services in at least 15 countries are equal or better to those offered here in the United States.
- Is it ethically appropriate for American insurance companies to provide international health care options and/or incentives to their customers?
- What are health care providers’ and insurers’ obligations to patients when they return to the United States and need follow-up care?
- What impact will this emerging industry have on public systems of care in the countries soliciting international patients?
- What impacts might there be on attempts to provide universal health care coverage to Americans?
In this session, we will hear from:
- the first American to arrange international medical care for a life-saving procedure,
- an advocate of global health care, who has researched this emerging industry and is familiar with efforts ongoing in more than 15 countries,
- a senior insurance executive who sees medical travel as a promising option for low-cost high-quality care for his company’s customers, and
- a law professor familiar with the legal and ethical issues
For more information, and to RSVP e-mail DME@hms.harvard.edu.