DOI: 10.14457/tu.the.2015.1356
title: Legal measures on controlling medical tourism facilitator

description: According to the escalation of health care movement and a result of unsatisfiedmedical care within the national level, the dramatic rise in the amount of patients has beenfound in the intensive competition in medical tourism market, especially ASEAN countries.Nevertheless, the distance, time, knowledge, languages, and culture turn out to bethe incentive matter in driving patients to come across the world. It explicitly seems that thepatients are not able to choose the greater medical treatment program without thecomparison of several factors relating to a choice, a price, a facilitation, and a completion ofservices, whereas the medical providers have no capacity to access to consumer bases.As mentioned, a medical tourism facilitator is a middleman who rearranges anddeliveries healthcare service to the patients as to eliminate the gap between customers andother providers. The more competitive medical care are found, the more significantlyincrease on ‘sale of medical treatment’ occur. Thereby, each medical tourism facilitator putits effort to attract patients, whether domestic or international level, which leads to the mainproblems ranging from the pre-medical treatment to post-medical treatment. The deceptiveadvertisements and the disclosures of information are referred to as the oppressiveallurement, while the contractual terms and conditions benefiting the medical tourismfacilitator itself may not be set forth straightforwardly. Furthermore, the limitations andexclusions in the contract always rule a few responsibilities for medical tourism facilitatorin the case of medical error, undertreatment operation, uncertified medical equipment andphysicians, and the cancellation of insurance coverage which affects the patients’ rights. Asa result of low patient protection, the indirect effect brings Thailand to the downturn ofmedical tourism and damages the medical tourism reputation consequently.The laws that generally impose on medical tourism facilitator case are ConsumerProtection Act and Civil and Commercial Code of Thailand, whereas specificallygoverning law is Tourism and Tourist Guide Business Act. Noticeably, a medical tourismfacilitator defines the quasi-broker in health care network. Still, the specifically governinglaw is not available for control its business operation. When it comes to the existence oflegal measures, the unsuitable resolutions are addressed. The main problem on controllingmedical tourism facilitator can be divided into three issues.First of all, the definition of medical tourism facilitators shall be deemed asuncertain which leads to the misleading interpretation among Thai authorities on exercisingtheir power, investigation, and the enactment of adequate legal measures. With theconcentration on tourism and movement of foreigners, medical tourism is referred to as akind of tourism which is subject to tourism law. Even the fundamental nature and structureof this kind of business fall under the medical service with partial insurance, the medicaltourism facilitators are not subject to any medical laws and regulations.Secondly, with the registration approval using simple qualification, the illegaland unqualified medical tourism facilitators can easily access the patient base.Lastly, the business operations of medical tourism facilitators, comprising theadvertising, the disclosure of information, quality of care, report of business operations,and contractual terms and conditions, complied with the general legal measures andbroad scope of authority review in passive manner, cannot assure the efficiency of thehealth care. The particular issues that should be enacted, such as review system forpatients and fiduciary duty, do not exist as well. In this regards, the legal measures on controlling medical tourism facilitatorsshall be concerned for the further amendment and enacted laws and regulations for themaintenance health care quality and potential medical tourism market of Thailand withthe steady consciousness of patient safety.