Medical Tourism: Consumers' Patterns of Participation

Abstract

This study looked at patterns of participating in medical tourism (MT) among consumers in South-Eastern region of North Carolina. The framework of four modes of medical tourism (Gan and Frederick, 2011) was used to examine how consumers participate in MT through four channels: on their own, use an agent, with the help of their insurance companies or their domestic doctors. The objectives of our research are: to identify the mode through which consumers are more likely to use MT, to find out consumer demographic that are more inclined to use certain modes given the treatment type. From the 522 survey samplings collected, multinomial logistic regressions were used to regress the modes of participating in medical tourism on various demographic variables given the treatment types (medically necessary procedures, cosmetic procedures, and procedures unavailable in the U.S.). Our results showed that young adults (18-21 years old) were more likely than those over 41 years old to go on their own for knee replacement, whereas the latter were more inclined than those aged 31-40 to go on their own for cosmetic procedures. Those with Associate degrees or some college tended to be open-minded about using channels other than their domestic doctors for knee replacement but were less likely to go through the third party payers for cosmetic procedures. In addition, those with less education are more likely than those with post-bachelor's degrees to use agents for knee replacement. Surprisingly, we also found the lowest income groups (below $15,000) were more likely than high income groups (above $100,000) to go on their own. Finally, both rural residents and those who reported 'poor' or 'fair' health were less inclined to use an agent for procedures unavailable in the United States.

Keywords: medical tourism, health tourism, participation modes, participation patterns, demographics

JEL Classification: I11, D12