According to BusinessWire, Thailand’s Bumrungrad International Hospital (BIH) has launched a medication tourism programme targeted at US patients. They are encouraging American medical travellers to visit Thailand to have prescriptions filled and authentic specialty drugs administered at a fraction of the cost compared to the US. Could this be a valuable extension to health services offered by medical travel destinations?
BIH claims that their Medication Tourism program makes specialty pharmaceuticals, vaccines and specialised care available to US patients at up to 80% savings compared to princes at home.
“Medication Tourism extends the value of medical tourism, furthering the Bumrungrad mission to improve access to affordable care and medications for people throughout the world,” said David Boucher, BIH chief business transformation officer BIH is one of the largest private hospitals in Southeast Asia. It claims to serve over 1.1 million patients annually, including 620,000 international patients from over 190 nationalities.
IMTJ believes identifying the top medical travel destinations for US medical travellers is difficult. Thailand and India are popular destinations for US tourists, and given BIH’s high quality reputation, some could be persuaded to use the medication tourism programme. There is however strong competition closer to home, with many US patients travelling to Mexico and Costa Rica for treatments and lower priced medication. For further analysis of outbound medical travel from the USA and the medical travel sector in Thailand, visit the IMTJ Country profiles.