Stackpole & Associates, Newport, RI, USA.
Medical Tourism Training, Inc., Newport, RI, USA.
Int J Health Plann Manage. 2021 Sep;36(5):1407-1416. doi: 10.1002/hpm.3259. Epub 2021 Jun 6.
Patients have historically travelled from across the world to the United States for medical care that is not accessible locally or not available at the same perceived quality. The COVID-19 pandemic has nearly frozen the cross-border buying and selling of healthcare services, referred to as medical tourism. Future medical travel to the United States may also be deterred by the combination of an initially uncoordinated public health response to the pandemic, an overall troubled atmosphere arising from widely publicized racial tensions and pandemic-related disruptions among medical services providers. American hospitals have shifted attention to domestic healthcare needs and risk mitigation to reduce and recover from financial losses. While both reforms to the US healthcare system under the Biden Presidency and expansion to the Affordable Care Act will influence inbound and outbound medical tourism for the country, new international competitors are also likely to have impacts on the medical tourism markets. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, US-based providers are forging new and innovative collaborations for delivering care to patients abroad that promise more efficient and higher quality of care which do not necessitate travel.
患者历史上曾从世界各地前往美国接受当地无法获得或无法获得同等质量的医疗服务。COVID-19 大流行几乎冻结了跨境购买和销售医疗服务，即所谓的医疗旅游。未来前往美国的医疗旅行也可能因大流行初期公共卫生应对措施缺乏协调、因广泛宣传的种族紧张局势和医疗服务提供者与大流行相关的中断而导致的整体混乱气氛而受阻。美国医院已将注意力转向国内医疗保健需求和风险缓解，以减少和从财务损失中恢复。虽然拜登总统领导下的美国医疗体系改革和《平价医疗法案》的扩大将影响美国的出入境医疗旅游，但新的国际竞争对手也可能对医疗旅游市场产生影响。为应对 COVID-19 大流行，总部设在美国的医疗机构正在为向国外患者提供医疗服务建立新的创新合作关系，这些合作关系有望提供更高效和更高质量的医疗服务，而无需旅行。
