Digital Commons @ Western New England University School of Law
Abstract
This Article examines two intersecting phenomena: medical
tourism and the outsourcing of health care goods and services.
"Medical Tourism" (Part I) involves the resident of one state or
country physically experiencing health care in another place. "Out-
sourcing" (Part II) involves care that appears domestic but has been
disaggregated to allow some components to be performed non-do-
mestically. Frequently the patient (or in the case of final benefi-
ciaries of a clinical trial, a domestic user of a subsequently approved
drug) does not know that care has been outsourced.
These two phenomena currently operate outside, and may be
disruptive of, contemporary Western health care regulation. While
health care, particularly in the U.S., is our most highly regulated
industry, medical tourism and outsourcing appear to operate
outside our traditional regulatory matrix. Having examined the ex-
tent to which this is an accurate intuition, this Article questions (in
Part III) the extent to which we do or will enjoy increased trading
of health services and addresses some of the issues that must be
considered in approaching any regulatory questions posed by medi-
cal tourism and outsourcing