Medical Tourism Association
The Medical Tourism Association® is a global non-profit that educates and advocates on behalf of the Medical Tourism and International Patient Industry. The MTA works with healthcare providers, governments, insurance companies, employers, and other buyers of healthcare in its medical tourism, international patient, and healthcare initiatives. The MTA is also committed to raising consumer awareness of international healthcare options and has specific initiatives designed to educate and increase the number of consumers who travel for healthcare.
The MTA works to inform consumers about options for medical treatment, whether they are local or halfway around the world. You can learn more about these initiatives below. The MTA educates consumers through its publications, such as its Health & Wellness Destination Guides and Medical Tourism Magazine. Most of the MTA resources are available online, including the No. 1 internet portal for healthcare consumers: www.MedicalTourism.Com. The Medical Tourism Association has three tenets: Transparency in Quality and Pricing, Communication, and Education.
To equip medical tourism and healthcare travel professionals with the tools to advance their business.
Transparency
The MTA seeks to provide transparency in both quality of care and pricing. Every day, we see how globalization of healthcare has created a very flat world. We exchange technology, information, communication, physicians, and patients. In order to ensure patient safety, we try to generate maximum transparency regarding the quality of healthcare that can be found in each country. Increasingly, it’s just as important to create a transparency in pricing too, so patients traveling overseas for care can be sure of what they are receiving without hidden costs or unforeseen expenses. The MTA is also working on the Quality of Care Project, which will change the way we look at the reporting of global healthcare statistics and the quality of care available at hospitals around the world.
Communication
MTA members agree that communication is the key to success, particularly with respect to ensuring positive patient outcomes. The members of the Medical Tourism Association have agreed to put competition aside and work together to resolve industry issues as they arise. We have created a forum for communication for all of the actors in the global healthcare environment.
Education
Although we live in a world where information is often right at our fingertips, there are still many people who don’t yet know that there are dozens of destinations all around the world that provide premium quality healthcare. Some patients in countries like the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom may lack timely access to healthcare because of prohibitive cost or high wait times; patients in other regions of the world, like in some parts of Africa and the Middle East, do not have access to high-quality care in their own country and must sometimes look elsewhere for treatment. Some patients just want to leave their own locale for healthcare to incorporate high quality of care with some sort of holiday or tourism.
Regardless of the reason, patients need education and information to understand what they should look for in finding a provider in a foreign country, as well as important precautions to ensure safe travel. As insurance companies continue to incorporate global healthcare and medical tourism options into their benefit plans, and since domestic healthcare providers are required to treat patients for aftercare when patients return to their home country, greater public exposure to the concept and details of medical travel is now more important than ever. The MTA strives to educate anyone with an interest in this industry using various means: the media, international healthcare conferences, and Medical Tourism Magazine. Our web magazines are medical tourism trade journals aimed at providing a wealth of information for anyone interested in or affected by the globalization of healthcare.
Our Mission
To raise awareness of the high level of quality healthcare available in various countries.
To promote positive and stable growth of the Medical Tourism and Global Healthcare Industry with a strong focus on transparency and communication.
To provide an unbiased source of information for patients, insurance companies and employers about top hospitals, with emphasis on their quality of care and outcomes.
To protect the reputation of the Medical Tourism industry from disreputable hospitals, healthcare providers, and medical tourism facilitators which may not have the same level of quality healthcare and standards.
To serve as one voice for the industry while working with government organizations or the media, in order to protect the reputation of the Medical Tourism Association®’s members.
To promote and provide a forum for communication and to increase connectivity between patients, healthcare providers, and insurance companies.
To seek out future affiliated industries and technologies that will allow international healthcare providers to operate more efficiently in the global healthcare industry.
To educate patients, insurance companies, agents, brokers, consultants and physicians from around the world about the growth of medical tourism and the globalization of healthcare.
Non-Profit Status
The Medical Tourism Association™ is an international non-profit organization which has been designated for 501(C)(6) status by the Internal Revenue Service of the United States Government. Section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code provides for the exemption of business leagues, which are not organized for profit and where no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual. The MTA does not have shareholders or investors. For a copy of the designation letter, click here.
How is the MTA Different than Other Organizations
We are a truly unbiased non-profit organization. The MTA is the first member-based non-profit association created in the medical tourism field. The MTA was not founded by any government or governmental organization, hospital, or private, for-profit corporation, nor are we funded or indirectly run or controlled by any such groups. The MTA is influenced only by the will and intent of its members.
We also have a full-time staff! The MTA is the only industry organization with a full-time staff dedicated to promoting the goals of its members. We are the only organization that we know of with staff and offices located in different regions of the world. Our association is the only organization that focuses on quality of care, transparency, communication, and education. Everything we do is in furtherance of these goals. To promote communication, we have monthly teleconferences to discuss common challenges and create a pyramidal growth structure for the industry. To promote education, our members speak at international conferences (and other venues) to provide insight on the challenges or benefits of ongoing healthcare globalization. The MTA regularly consults with international governments all over the world about the growth of the industry in other countries and the opportunities created through improving the quality of care within their national borders. Our main office is located in West Palm Beach, Florida, in the United States, but we also have offices in the following locations: Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Seoul, Korea; San Jose, Costa Rica; Istanbul, Turkey; Tel Aviv, Israel; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Germany; Recife, Brazil; Porto Alegre, Brazil, Athens, Greece.
We believe our US Headquarters best positions us to further our goals of education, with respect to insurance companies, employers, physician groups, and patients located within the United States. From this location, we can easily access the American, Canadian and European public, which includes the largest growing population of patients looking for options overseas. The regional offices in Asia and the Middle East are organized to address Chinese, Japanese, and Middle Eastern patients, which are the target markets for many of our Asian members. The offices in Latin America and Europe will address the growth and the concerns of the Latin American and European healthcare providers, respectively.
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