The COVID-19 pandemic has caused steep declines in medical tourism, with U.S. hospitals suffering billions of dollars in lost revenue, CNBC reports.
Medical tourism had grown increasingly popular in recent years, fueled by patients who felt disenfranchised by the U.S. healthcare system and the high cost of care.
More than 1.4 million Americans traveled to a different country for care in 2017, according to The American Journal of Medicine.
Last year, the global medical tourism market was worth $37 billion. Canada, Singapore and Japan ranked as the top three destinations for care in the 2020 edition of the Medical Tourism Index.
Domestically, employers such as Walmart have established Centers of Excellence programs to provide workers with access to high-quality, specialty care that includes spine surgery and joint replacement. The employer's strategy avoids health insurers and deals directly with health systems.
However, both domestic and international medical tourism has taken a significant hit since travel was interrupted at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, CNBC reports.
Additionally, U.S. hospitals are seeing between 40 percent and 70 percent less patients since the onset of the pandemic, with the American Hospitals Association finding that hospitals and health systems are losing on average $50 billion a month.
David Vequist, PhD, director of Center for Medical Tourism Research at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, told CNBC that domestic medical tourism is one of the largest sources of income for U.S. hospitals.
Promising clinical data from Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine saw the global stock market soar Nov. 10, with airline stocks among the highest to see increases.
The widespread distribution of a vaccine could still be months away, but the news has provided hope for the medical tourism market and the wider healthcare field.