Medical Tourism in Germany (eBook)

Dr. Klaus Schmerler is a researcher at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. His research focuses on the empirical investigation of medical tourism and trade in health services, a topic at the intersection of health economics, econometrics and international trade.

1 A Dearth of Empirical Investigations ....... 12 Traveling for Treatment: Taxonomy, Patient Flows and Candidate Drivers ... 52.1 Medical Tourists ...................................... 52.1.1 Mode of Delivery ....................... 52.1.2 Treatment Focus .............................. 62.1.3 Elective Care ..................................... 92.1.4 Cross-Border Operations ................... 92.1.5 Time Horizon .................... 112.1.6 Summary ............................. 112.2 Medical Tourism Flows ..................... 132.2.1 World ................................ 142.2.2 Germany ............................. 192.3 Drivers of Medical Tourism .................. 502.3.1 Domestic Availability ..................... 502.3.2 Price .................................................. 512.3.3 Quality ........................................................ 572.3.4 Tourism ............................................. 582.3.5 Facilitation .................................... 602.3.6 Proximity ............................................ 652.3.7 Summary ..................................... 672.4 Implications of Medical Tourism .................. 722.4.1 Migration and Local Access .................... 722.4.2 Treatment Quality and Continuity of Care ........... 742.4.3 Legal Aspects ............................ 762.4.4 Ethics ............................................. 802.5 Summary ................................. 833 The Sum of Its Parts: A Structured Approach to the Modeling of Destination Choice 863.1 Product Disaggregation ......................... 863.2 Consumer Disaggregation .......................... 893.3 Supplier Disaggregation ......................... 913.3.1 Physician Choice .......................................... 923.3.2 Provider Choice ................................ 943.3.3 Country Choice ........................................... 953.3.4 Destination Choice.................................. 963.4 Summary .............................. 1014 Drivers of Medical Travel at the National Level ............. 1064.1 The Gravity Model .................................. 1074.1.1 Basic Structure .... 1074.1.2 Multilateral Resistance ........ 1084.1.3 Heterogeneous Firms .......... 1114.1.4 Heterogeneous Consumers ...................... 1144.1.5 Heterogeneous Products .............. 1184.1.6 Measures of Distance ........................ 1194.1.7 Summary ....................... 1204.2 Specification .......................................... 1234.3 Data ........................................ 1284.4 Estimation .............................. 1334.5 Results ......................................................... 1364.6 Summary ......................... 1485 Drivers of Medical Travel at the Hospital Level .................. 1505.1 Model ......................... 1505.2 Data ................................................... 1535.3 Estimation and Specification ....................... 1625.4 Results ...................................................... 1635.5 Summary ................................................. 1676 Drivers of Medical Tourism at the Individual Level ................. 1686.1 Interviews ............................................. 1696.1.1 Hospitals in Germany ............................. 1696.1.2 Facilitators in Germany .............................. 1716.1.3 Facilitators in Russia .............................. 1736.1.4 Results .............................................. 1746.2 Patient Survey ........................................ 1776.2.1 Questionnaire ....................................... 1786.2.2 DCE .................................................... 1806.2.3 Results ....................................... 1886.3 Summary ................................................... 2057 Connecting the Dots: Implications for Destinations and Policy Makers ..... 2088 References........................................... 215