Medical travelers clamor for luxe US health care
08-Feb-17, PYMNTS.com
The Shapiro Tower Pavilion at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital offers its patients sweeping views of Boston’s skyline from their rooms. The extravagant hospitality provided at the penthouse suites of the pavilion provides a glimpse into a growing market of medical travelers who come to the US to seek top-notch health care.
Image: PYMNTS.com
In 2016, nearly 300,000 foreign patients are estimated to have traveled to the US to seek medical treatments, according to Patients Beyond Borders. These patients, many of whom come to seek treatment for high-acuity conditions, spend an average of USD35,000, representing approximately 22 percent of the global international health care travel market, said Josef Woodman, CEO of Patients Beyond Borders.
To entice a larger number of medical travelers, top medical centers have been spending millions of dollars cultivating their facilities to attract international patients, Woodman noted. More recently, they are seeing a growing influx of patients from China.