Medical Tourism at Mountain Insurance Company
2016
This case explores some of the ethical dilemmas associated with medical tourism, the practice of seeking medical care in foreign countries where the quality may be similar but costs much less than the same procedure performed in the patient’s home country. In the case, a summer intern at the nonprofit company Mountain Health Insurance has been tasked to identify the associated ethical issues with medical tourism that the company’s ethics advisory group should consider at their next meeting. What values should the company apply when thinking about its approach to medical tourism? Her findings and recommendations will steer the company’s effort to update their ethical guidelines to reflect emerging ethical challenges in the financing and delivery of health care.
In addition to the four-page case, three discussion questions are provided. These questions ask students to reflect on whether the company should develop an insurance product that includes overseas providers for certain services and procedures, the benefits and concerns of developing such products within the context of the company’s mission, and the ethical issues raised by medical tourism.
A teaching note is also available free of charge to faculty and may be accessed by request.
The case is one in a series of case studies developed by and for the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Case-Based Teaching and Learning Center.
Medical Tourism at Mountain Insurance Company
Source:
Kane N. Medical Tourism at Mountain Insurance Company. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health 2016. https://caseresources.hsph.harvard.edu/publications/medical-tourism-mountain-health-insurance-company.