Puerto Rico is fighting hard to become the next top medical tourism destination

Among many other countries, Puerto Rico too is trying to become a popular and reputed medical tourism hub. Medical tourism is a profitable industry and all the developing nations are trying to get a share of it. The government of Puerto Rico is also trying to make medical care more affordable and easily available for the international patients.

dentist

A large number of patients from the mainland US are traveling to Puerto Rico for getting timely medical facilities. Soon the Puerto Rican government will give guidelines for using medical marijuana for the treatment of diseases that involve chronic pain like migraine and epilepsy.

Attractive combination of low costs and good quality

Dreaming business woman with cash in hand

At present medical tourists can save around 40% to 60% by traveling to Puerto Rico from developed countries like US. The costs of medical treatments and even basic checkups and screenings are increasing quickly in US.

In Canada the waiting time is too long and private medical facilitators charge exorbitantly for complicated medical procedures. In such circumstances patients prefer the US territory in the Caribbean Sea.

Medical Tourism Association has acknowledged the attempts of Puerto Rico and stated that this country is now trying hard to join the billion dollar medical tourism destinations league. The executive director of Puerto Rico Medical Tourism Corporation, Francisco Bonet, has mentioned that they have completed evaluating the proposals and now they are almost ready for marketing the health care services that Puerto Rico can offer to a global audience.

The Puerto Rico Medical Tourism Corporation and its associates will soon launch vigorous promotional campaigns for attracting international medical tourists. They hope to capture a large share of the world’s medical tourism market. In the last three years Puerto Rico has served over 30,000 patients and earned more than $300 million dollars.

The government is trying to enhance quality

Husband Visiting Wife In Hospital

Puerto Rico’s medical tourism industry is getting all the support it needs from the government. The government had launched a training and certification program for grooming the medical tourism service providers last year.

Francisco Bonet has clearly stated that they intend to make Puerto Rico one of the top and most preferred medical tourism destinations of the world. He also mentioned that the local medical tourism facilitators get prepared to meet international standards and serve medical tourists from different continents.

The initial training arranged by the government will be conducted by a Medical Tourism Association based in Florida. The cost of this training will be $500,000. Bonet firmly believes that high quality training will help the service providers make a great first impression on the international patients. This will help in improving the image of Puerto Rico in their mind.

The President of Medical Tourism Association based out of West Palm Beach, Renee Marie Stephano, has said that Puerto Rico is fast becoming the go-to medical tourism destination for American patients. Its convenient location and low surgical costs are the key factors that have influenced patients of US so far.

Stephano has also mentioned that it would be an injustice to compare Puerto Rico’s performance as a medical tourism destination with the key players of this industry yet. It is an emerging player and soon it will become powerful.

Man helping woman inject drugs to achieve pregnanc

There is a huge difference between the surgical costs in US and Puerto Rico. A hip replacement surgery that costs $33,000 in the US will cost $28,000 in Puerto Rico and a complicated surgery like Heart Valve Replacement that costs $85,000 in US will cost only $48,000 in Puerto Rico. Patients are eager to save expenses on healthcare and do not mind to travel for that specific purpose.

Puerto Rico is a closer to home and convenient medical tourism destination for the US based patients. Puerto Rico, however, is aiming to become one of the top medical tourism destinations of the entire world.

Recent Articles:

Scroll to Top