Chinese are the consumers of global medical tourism industry

More and more Chinese from well-to-do quarters in need of advanced medical care are going abroad, particularly to the United States. They are the consumers of the global medical tourism industry.

The number of such consumers globally doubled to 40 million in six years since 2006. In 2013, their total spending reached $438.6 billion, or 14 percent of the global tourism industry.

Next year, it is projected to reach $678.5 billion or 16 percent of the global tourism industry, according to a survey by the Stanford Research Institute.

Cai Jiangnan, director of the Center for Healthcare Management and Policy with China Europe International Business School, attributed the trend to three reasons: better medical environment and service abroad, state-of-the-art technology and availability of latest medicine.

Wu Ming, 65, will probably agree. A two-month medical trip to California helped him to bounce back to good health and work from cancer.

Wu had lost two years after starting to feel physical discomfort in 2012. A medical examination at a local hospital in Shanghai showed nothing abnormal. It was not until September 2013 that he was diagnosed with late-stage prostate cancer.

Learning that traditional treatment would do little to tame the disease, Wu turned to a Shanghai-based overseas medical treatment service provider in September 2014. Two months later, he received a particle therapy treatment in the US.

"Only 3 percent of the wealthy in China could go abroad for medical treatment in 2011. That figure jumped to 40 percent in 2015. The number of Chinese seeking overseas medical services increased threefold in the October-December quarter of 2015 compared to the early part of the year," Tang Heng, executive partner of GTJA Investment Group, told China Business News.

There are no official figures for Chinese medical consumers overseas. Yet, quite a few foreign medical players are extending their business to the Chinese market.

According to Fan Tailai, general manager of MEGA Healthcare, at least 3,000 Chinese may have availed of modern healthcare services in the US by flying out of Shanghai in 2013.

"The actual number could be higher. As new visas are valid for 10 years, people can go on a medical tour even if their visas are for pure travel or visiting reasons," Fan said.

The average cost of medical treatment for a serious illness works out to about $150,000 in the US.Most of the Chinese patients visiting the US come from major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.

Chen Jiaye, 37, and her family went to the US for a one-month visit last year. She spent around 20,000 yuan ($3,036) for a physical examination in Los Angeles. She is now considering regular health checks abroad.

For example, US hospitals are well known for treatment of tumors and maternity assistance; Germany is known for facilities for tumor treatment, orthopedics, and ophthalmology; the UK is preferred for treatments relating to cancer, heart disease and neurology; South Korea has made a name for itself as a destination for plastic surgeries.

But the US is the most preferred destination, thanks to its high medical standards, new 10-year visa policy, growing number of patients with tumors, Chinese people's knowledge about America, and the growing popularity of English among the Chinese, said Jiang.

"I used to think every hospital is the same-noisy, crowded, and you have to take off your pants in front of everybody in the room when you are given an injection," said Cai Qiang, founder and president of Beijing Saint Lucia Hospital Management Consulting Co.

"But when I moved to Australia, I saw a completely different scene in the hospital－the building looked like a star hotel, and there were special rooms for the doctor and the patient to use at the time of an examination. When my wife gave birth to our baby, the doctor even prepared a camera for us," Cai said.

He said he was shocked by the stark contrast and decided to go back to China in 2009 to help Chinese people receive overseas medical treatment.

In 2011, Saint Lucia became the nation's first provider of overseas medical care, and it is now the largest in this area with nearly 1,000 clients receiving either a long-distance medical consultation or medical treatment overseas.

"There are only three or four agencies offering similar services when we established the company in 2013, and we had only a certain number of customers (who went to the US for treatment) in the first year," said Guo Liang, executive director and co-founder of MEGA Healthcare.

The number of such agencies rose to 30 early last year, and has since grown to about 100.

That has created an urgent need for quality control and tighter supervision as expensive medical treatments are usually followed by either fine recovery or death.

A report by Analysys.cn published in May said the demand for overseas healthcare started in 2000. Between 2010 and 2014, consumers of such services were often those with an annual income of 1 million yuan or above. Now, the market is set to grow on the back of online platforms.

"The average cost of a health check in Japan is about 80,000 yuan. The highest price could reach 168,000 yuan. After we opened our online services in September last year, the cost fell to about 50,000 yuan," said Xiong Juan, CEO of cycares.com, the nation's first online cross-border healthcare consulting and service platform.

According to Xiong, cycares.com's monthly revenue doubled in April to 2 million yuan from the level in November 2015.

Compared with brick-and-mortar counterparts, online platforms boast larger customer bases. For they had started with services like providing registration and online medical consulting service by linking domestic hospitals and patients, said Jiang Xinwei.

"The more than 88 million registered users of Shenzhen Ningyuan Technology Co Ltd will give us an edge in providing personalized service accordingly," said Luo Ningzhen, CEO of the company.

The online medical services provider founded its overseas healthcare arm in March. It helps patients receive treatment in more than 60 hospitals in South Korea, Japan, the US and Thailand. It is also planning to add more hospitals from other countries and regions soon.

Brick-and-mortar service providers are also jumping on the online bandwagon. "We started to offer video diagnoses in August 2015. The new service increased the number of our patients by 50 percent and lowered the cost to patients, as they can now seek a second opinion from overseas experts without going abroad," said Guo.

"Although this is a niche market, I believe it will grow rapidly in coming years, and we will keep exploiting it," said Guo.

chinadaily.com.cn