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Friday, August 06, 2010

Medical Tourism and Taiwan

Sign in an elevator: watch out for pickpockets.

I spent this week touring hospitals on behalf of the government of Taiwan. It's been quite educational.

Prior to the 2008 election medical tourism had been identified as a growth area by outsiders looking for places to expand Taiwan's economy in the future. Local initiatives in this area actually date back a few years, to the early 2000s. Time magazine recently articled:
And why not? Taiwan has long been popular with its expatriate population as a medical-travel destination. At Taipei's abundant health care facilities, the equipment is modern and sophisticated, and most importantly, prices are considered a steal. Some of the biggest savings are in liver-transplant surgery, which runs to around $91,000, compared with some $300,000 in the U.S.

Price tags like that have built a small but devoted following for Taiwan's niche medical-tourism market, and it's about to get a lot more customers.

Taiwan's neighbors across the strait have been making their way to the island for a nip or a tuck since travel restrictions for Chinese tourists were lifted in mid-2008. Now, in the latest of a series of agreements and concessions between China and Taiwan, Taipei announced last week that Chinese tourists will soon be allowed to travel individually to
the island — a development that many medical-tourism proponents are hoping will be a boon to their industry.

Taiwan's current policy only permits controlled tour groups from the mainland, which limits options for Chinese who seek varied medical services. "Under group-travel restrictions, tourists are told where they can go and when. They can't deviate from the set itinerary," says David Wang, a plastic surgeon and chairman of the Taiwan Medical Tourism Development Association. "I've heard of a few people who will secretly come [for plastic surgery], perhaps under a fake name or by claiming they are here on business." Now, Chinese patients seeking operations can plan ahead and book Botox treatments and eye-bag or double-eyelid surgery at Wang's offices on their own schedule.

Compared to those of its regional neighbors, Taiwan's medical-tourism industry is only in its infancy. Its output last year narrowly missed the $20 million mark, whereas revenue in more established Asian medical-travel industries, Singapore and Thailand, reached billions of dollars.
In Taiwan medical tourism is promoted by an industry association, the TMTDA, and by a government task force, the Taiwan Task Force for Medical Travel. With that unerring accuracy found throughout Taiwan government English coinage, the government Task Force selected the little-used term medical travel rather than the usual medical tourism.

Medical tourism in Taiwan is one of the island's encounters with the shaping forces of globalization. In Taiwan internationalization is often synonymous with Englishicization -- it is international if we use more English. But in some of the local hospitals I visited a form of true globalization is sought -- importation of best practices for sale to international markets. In the medical tourism business this means obtaining accreditation from an accreditation body of one of the world's major western industrial nations, as well as having doctors trained overseas, and development of and/or acquisition of the latest medical technology. Languages other than English were offered; at one major hospital I visited signs were in English, Chinese, and Japanese. Another offered translation services in more than twenty languages, including Arabic. Another sign of internationalization is non-denominational prayer halls, found in all hospitals, missionary or otherwise.

Some hospitals appeared to be pursuing the opposite goal, hiding behind the walls erected by Department of Health regs to resist incorporation into global health networks. English can serve that function as well -- as a buffer against the outside world rather than a conduit for its entrance. The medical tourism policy may be loved by bureaucrats and private hospital owners but it is often opposed by staff and administrators. The issues are complex.

One administrator observed that in Thailand and Singapore, two popular medical tourism destinations, doctors are selling "excess capacity" in the medical system -- extra beds and extra doctors. In Taiwan neither exists. Because the Department of Health regulates the bed-to-population ratio, doctor-patient ratios, and so forth, capacity is nearly always right at its limits. Thus to handle medical tourists, a VIP population with special demands for attention, doctors must find time within their 65-80 patient a day workloads to squeeze in foreign patients, and administrators must similarly adjust workloads and facilities. Moreover, the nurse-patient ratio in Taiwan is low since family members are expected to attend at the bedsides of the ill and perform many simple activities nurses often do in western nations with higher nurse-patient ratios. The introduction of foreign patients without local families thus puts strain on the system, especially since they require nurses trained in a foreign language (the locals solve the problem of a lack of family by hiring people who hang out by hospitals just to fulfill that role).

Another issue bound up with medical tourism is tourism itself. One reason Thailand and Singapore have so many medical tourists is that they have so many tourists, period. This not only produces more opportunities for expenditures on medical needs but also creates the familiarity and word of mouth that support the growth of a medical tourism industry. I had to laugh when I heard administrators at several hospitals echoing my own appraisals of the Tourism Bureau's ineptitude: "They always promote the same things: Taipei 101, Taroko..." A key component of medical tourism is an active tourism industry separate from medical tourism that brings foreigners into the country. Taiwan is already visited by numerous Japanese and increasingly, Chinese, tourists; naturally, those two countries lead the list of medical tourists in Taiwan.

Yet another issue is regulations that ban advertising by hospitals. A Taipei Times report from January noted:
But local hospitals are lagging behind in terms of international marketing and resources to develop the industry, Mark Lee said. This, combined with tight regulations, poses a hurdle to the medical tourism sector, he said.

As the medical services sector is considered non-profit, government regulations bar hospitals from advertising their prices to attract foreign clients.

To appeal to potential medical tourists abroad, authorities need to loosen restrictions on advertising, Mark Lee said, adding that Taiwan must also simplify the visa application process for medical tourists.
Some hospitals are already attempting to build products using their brand name. For example, one hospital we visited has launched a line of ready-made main dishes for meals. However, it can't advertise to build brand recognition. Because of these laws hospitals are also leery about putting information online about prices for specific procedures, instead simply posting the public NHI fee requirements.

In addition to the demands on staff, foreign patients frequently require separate luxury facilities. One hospital had erected a set of international patient suites that were each the size of large hotel rooms, so family members of patients could stay there. Several offered separate offices or departments where foreigners were served separately and rapidly. With the large number of doctors trained overseas, it was never a problem to find a near-fluent speaker of English to chat with about the hospital. Of course, we had a lot of fun with the numerous English-speaking volunteers, invariably older women with plenty of Taiwan-style sass.

As with so many other Taiwan government policies, medical tourism is something that seems obvious on the surface -- many articles present it simply as a problem of marketing the "unknown" greatness of Taiwan -- but marketing the product is just the surface of the issue. To wit:
Ben Tsao of Kaohsiung Aesthetic Medical Tourism Promotion Association cites a report from Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) showing that foreign patients accounted for less than 1 percent of total medical service users in 2008. He points out that the most popular services among foreign patients are health examinations and cosmetic surgery; and not the five physical surgeries promoted by the government of joint replacement, cardiovascular operations, in-vitro fertilization, facial rejuvenation and liver transplants, “Those surgeries normally have to be performed at large teaching hospitals, which may use resources that should be reserved for citizens. It is difficult for the patients to travel after the surgery.
Tsao goes on to suggest that smaller clinics handle such functions, and indeed several are in the government task force. But several individuals I spoke to opined that the Task Force is not the right place for their organization to achieve its medical tourism goals.

Indeed, going by the website alone, that would appear to be true. The Task Force website is a good example of bad government internalization at work: it appears that no international marketing consultant was hired to help construct it. The search function is clunky, the "tourism information" is nonexistent, the English is well-groomed Chinglish etc. Individuals familiar with Taiwan's government websites will know the drill. It may be cheap, but it's a marketer's nightmare. Taiwan's doctors may be world class, but until the government reaches their level, the market will continue to grow at a snail's pace.

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11 comments:

  1. Great summary, Michael. Lots of good insights. South Korea, in just five years, has pretty much cornered the market on Korean-American and Korean-Canadian medical tourism. Taiwan meanwhile mostly gets North American Taiwanese with dual citizenship coming back and costing the system money. (Actually, I don't know that for a fact, but my guess is it's true.)

    The government here cares only about Chinese medical tourists, it seems, with the five specialties chosen highlighting the preference; Chinese, not Westerners, will fly here for those surgeries. I think those five specialties were chosen before the KMT reurned to power, though.

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  2. I'm actually surprised you think the island can make a go of medical tourism for a few reasons.

    Latent racism-How soon till a news channel shows how much better foreigners are being treated than regular Taiwanese patients? Then some regulator or legislator is going to be all over them. The disparity in charges will be glossed over in the attempt to show how Taiwanese are abused by the system. The best part will be the reaction caught on TV when the first foreigner realizes that there is no such thing as medical privacy in Taiwan.

    Govt policy: Anyone who thinks govt in Taiwan works except in the broadest of terms here is sorely misinformed. The complete lack of inertia to do anything basically means that except for a few daring hospitals that may or may not be attacked by the media and legislators, everyone is is going to go with the status quo.

    Marketing: They will completely screw this up. This is their first impression and people are not going to accept Chinglish no matter how cheap the surgery is. Short of a savvy salesman selling them on this and I doubt it would go far in most hospitals bureaucracies.

    This is nothing but a face parade, drag some foreigners and academics out show that you are hip with the new trend and do nothing legally to alleviate the clusterfuck that it really is. We've had the big e-everything, the whole green thing, and now medical tourism.

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  3. Okami, I guess we're in the clusterfuck phase and maybe will never leave it. But there's no reason in principle that we couldn't find a niche.

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  4. "...people are not going to accept Chinglish no matter how cheap the surgery is."

    You mean, Okami, that you wouldn't put yourself in the hands of this man and his institution?

    http://www.sltung.com.tw/tw/pkcase/mypage5.php?mypage_id=184

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  5. I met this amazing young guy during our January Taroko bike trip that launched a venture squarely aimed at marketing Taiwan medical services. Check it out: http://formosamedicaltravel.com/

    I am curious if you toured any of his hospitals?

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  6. One of the interesting secondary gains from the "Medical Tourism" push here in Taiwan has been the number of hospitals that have obtained the Joint Commission International Accreditation (JCI). The rest of us can benefit from this attempt to meet this standard of care.
    The medical tourism industry literature has continued to debate the facts and figures surrounding patient numbers and actual income. The only thing the industry can agree on is that every country wants to get some income from medical tourism. A lot of the latest articles talk about the U.S. and European medical tourism markets.
    Also, most of the VIP or International health care services can be accessed by anyone (including Taiwanese)as long as you are willing to pay the fees. The services are not covered under the NHI plan. I am familiar with several hospitals that offer these luxury services and Taiwanese with money do access these services already. Perhaps that is why there has not been the bad publicity you might expect.

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  7. Medical Tourism is an interesting subject. The good point is that many hospitals in Taiwan are now JCI Accredited (Joint Commission International, an affiliate of the main hospital accreditation association in the U.S.)
    Many hospitals also now offer International clinics or VIP services which offer multilingual health care or translators at a price. I worked for one of these hospitals for about 18 months. Anyone who wants to pay the fees can access these special services and many Taiwanese do. Some as a luxury item and some just for the status.
    I think this is why there has not been negative publicity about medical tourism. In quite a few ways it has encouraged hospitals to upgrade staff and facilities.
    The downside is that the medical tourism industry literature questions both the number of patients and the amount of income from medical tourism that have been thrown around. And some articles lately highlight medical tourism in or to the U.S. and also Europe. One thing is for sure. Everyone wants a piece of the pie.
    On balance medical tourism to Taiwan seems very positive but is hampered by the traditional view of tourism here. That is something that needs to change to make this work.

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  8. and if the Taiwanese doctors screw up, good look suing for malpractice!

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  9. Hi Michael !

    Hospitals in Singapore offer ultra-high quality healthcare and accommodation facilities serviced by 7,000 doctors and over 15,000 registered nurses. Singapore hospitals have international accreditation from the Joint Commission International (JCI), ISO and OHSAS.

    Regards.

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  10. Hi Michael, just came across this mainly as I am entering the medical tourism business from Hong Kong. Very interesting and informative article, many many good points from you and the subsequent comments. Especially the point regarding the selling of excess capacity vs competition with locals. Often the desire for tourist revenue can obscure the practicalities of delivering the service. Thanks for the article.

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  11. Thanks! It was an informative trip around Taiwan. Glad it was useful to you.

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