Private hospitals prepare for medical tourism boom, Medicare
The rising cost of health care in the United States is forcing an increasing number of U.S. citizens to turn their sights on Mexico for expert and cost-effective medical attention.
Research done by the Association for Private Hospitals in Jalisco reveals that of the 21.5 million tourists who visited Mexico in 2006, about 160,000 – mostly Americans – came for medical attention.
“We hope to increase medical tourism by seven percent each year, a goal we believe is easily attainable,” says Dr. Dagoberto Garcia Mejia, the association’s president and the director of the Lomas Providencia Hospital in Guadalajara.
The Jalisco state government also sees the benefits from promoting medical tourism and recently announced it would be investing 4.35 million pesos to bring private hospitals up to the standards required for certification by the Joint Commission International (JCI), an institution that accredits hospitals in Canada and the United States.
Although the health sector here is regulated and certified by the Mexican General Health Commission, the task of getting JCI certification for Jalisco’s private hospitals is of prime importance, says Garcia.
“One of the main reasons for pushing for certification is that the North American Free Trade Agreement obligates the Mexican medical system to be on a par with the United States and Canada, allowing for the free flow of patients from border to border and for fair trade, much like in other economic sectors.”
But there is another huge reason for this interest in JCI certification and that is Medicare.
According to Paul Crist, the founder and president of Americans for Medicare for Mexico (AMMAC), a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing Medicare coverage to seniors living in Mexico, of the 800,000 American citizens living in Mexico approximately 200,000 are over 60 years old and thus are at or near eligibility for Medicare benefits.
Crist, a former senator’s aide in Washington and now a hotel owner in Puerto Vallarta, says if Medicare is extended to Mexico, the program would only work with health care providers approved by JCI.
He revealed that ten hospitals in Mexico have JCI accreditation but another 23 are seeking approval. Among those already approved are the American British Padre Hospital and the Santa Fe Hospital in Mexico City and the Christus Muguerza Hospital and the Hospital Tec de Monterrey in Monterrey.
All Jalisco’s private hospitals are still seeking JCI accreditation.
The approval of Medicare would greatly benefit hospitals such as Christus Muguerza, a Texas chain that now has seven hospitals under construction across Mexico.
“Christus Muguerza stands to be a big player in the future,” says Crist. “They have the advantage because their headquarters is in Texas, which gives Medicare a bit more confidence in the quality service they are going to provide.”
Interestingly, Crist says Mexican hospital accreditation standards match JCI’s requirements in almost every respect.
“We are now asking that Medicare do their studies to accept Mexican accreditation instead of the JCI accreditation,” he says. “Then there will be plenty of hospitals that can be Medicare providers.”
Since he founded AMMAC last March, Christ has lobbied 85 members of the U.S. Congress and prepared a 34-page proposal in which he outlines the pros of making of extending Medicare to Mexico.
“Medicare is now spending 6,700 dollars per year per beneficiary in the United States. For the same care in Mexico, my estimate is that it will spend only 3,400 dollars, which translates to a very substantial saving.”
In a recent interview with Forbes magazine, David Warner, a professor of health care policy at the University of Texas at Austin and a specialist on Medicare in Mexico, stated that an in-depth pilot project is needed to better understand the economics, determine whether Mexican heath care meets Medicare’s quality standards and determine if the payment system is sufficiently free of fraud.
According to Forbes, the U.S government is concerned that creating a Mexican medical exemption might be too complicated and costly to implement and would open the door for Americans in other countries.
Crist figures that if Medicare were accepted in Mexico, the 64 percent of American retirees currently flying back to the United States for expensive care would opt for treatment nearer their homes, cutting Medicare overall costs by a minimum of 22 percent.
Though Crist remains positive of Congress’ response to his lobbying efforts, sympathetic legislators have also said that this year they have too much on their plate and that it would be politically wiser to introduce a stand-alone Mexico-Medicare bill next year.