Posted by Damjan DeNoble
Interesting announcement by India Ministry of Tourism as reported in article on Travel Biz Monitor, on how it plans to put its advertising muscle behind the country’s leading Joint Commission International (JCI) and National Accreditation Board of Hospitals (NABH) certified hospitals. Following on the heels of South Korea’s recent highly publicized policy of limiting 5% of bed space in hospitals to foreign visitors, are we starting to see a trend in government seeing medical tourism as an emerging cash cow industry? Pradeep Thukrai, Group Head of International Marketing for Apollo Hospitals, makes a salient point when he is quoted as saying:
“The Ministry is prompting all players to form a government-industry partnership on the lines of Nasscom to strengthen the Indian healthcare brand overseas. Efforts will be made to launch uniform pricing bands and to combine medical packages with travel products. The potential for forex earnings through this route is huge. On an average, a medical traveller spends about USD 7,000 as opposed to a holiday traveller who spends USD 3, 000.” [sic]
The part about medical tourism being big business is obvious, but he mentions strengthening the Indian healthcare brand. I don’t think I have ever heard of someone pitching American health care as a brand – instead, for as long as anyone can remember, it has been accepted as the international standard (to be clear, I am talking about the personal care available to patients, and not the American health system as a whole which is a discussion for another day). But, what happens now as other countries standards have caught up and the American healthcare industry is faced with flat world competition? Will there be an emergence of an American brand? A Korean brand? A British brand? A French brand?
What do you think?
About the Author
[...] It’s always good to see professional business associations taking note of their competition. The Business Blog of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce says about medical tourism and the need for an american healthcare brand here, what we’ve been saying about the need for this sort of healthcare innovation since starting this blog, most recently here and here. [...]
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Superb, quality health care coupled with welcoming hospitality will emerge as the “brand” sought by informed patients.
Just as with any iconic brand, several factors perpetuate the perceived image: Quality, Customer Care, and Advertising & Marketing.
Cost and perceived values will always be a factor. Informed patients typically select the best quality healthcare that they can afford. Heart pacemakers are a good case and point from a consumer psychology standpoint: If given the option, patients will seldom select the cheapest, but adequate, pacemaker if they can afford a more expensive model.
While many international healthcare providers offer quality healthcare advancements for less cost, prospective patients must be assured that they are receiving excellent medical treatment and friendly patient care. If patients do not believe that are going to be in excellent hands for medical care, then saving medical cost will be of little importance to them, as they will not choose the international options.
[...] about the implications this sort of government support have on medical tourism in general – you can find that article here. Share this [...]
The ratio of doctors to population is awful and with millions in US insured and baby boomers looking to get instant quality treatments which is not possible in Canada, UK because of wait times, Indian govt is taking the right steps.
Shah
Roshan,
I agree with you. In fact, I applaud the governments efforts. I will continue following the developments closely – see our update article on the first page of the blog – https://asiahealthcareblog.com
[...] about the implications this sort of government support have on medical tourism in general – you can find that article here. [...]
[...] for a country then a quality health care industry? This sort of movement is evidenced by an India Ministry of Tourism announcement last month, stating that public funds would be put into the marketing campaign of the country’s most [...]
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