Determinants of medical tourism destination selection process

ABSTRACT

Even though American health care providers have incessantly raised their prices, medical insurers have managed to achieve (greater) profitability covering fewer services for a smaller number of clientele every year. Against this backdrop, there has been a sharp increase in the number of people seeking health care in foreign countries. Using prospect theory, this study finds medical tourism consideration to be driven by domestic medical costs, patient privacy concerns, medical restrictions, and foreign destination desirability. The latter is in turn influenced by tourist attractions and service quality assurance in addition to domestic medical costs. The findings and their implications and limitations are also discussed.

尽管美国的医疗保健提供者不断提高医疗费用。保险公司已经实现了（更大的）盈利能力，每年为较小的客户提供较少的服务。在这种背景，在国外寻求卫生保健的人数急剧增加。利用前景理论，本研究认为医疗旅游考虑受国内医疗费用、病人隐私、医疗限制和国外目的地需求的驱动。后者除了受国内医疗费用影响外，还受到旅游景点和服务质量保证的影响。讨论结果及其影响和局限性也被讨论。

KEYWORDS:

• Medical tourism
• destination desirability
• costs
• quality
• privacy
• restrictions
• attractions