CANADIAN MEDICAL TOURISM: EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES AND REDUCING LEGAL RISKS FOR AMERICAN HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS.

Medical tourism, growing worldwide, includes Canadians coming to the United States for medical treatment. For U.S. healthcare providers to take advantage of the potential economic benefits of cash-paying Canadian medical tourists, they must comply with U.S. federal and state laws governing fraud and abuse, including the federal Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS), and state-level analogs. These laws may restrict the ability of U.S. healthcare providers to compensate foreign medical tourism brokers, who play an important role in the growth of medical tourism by providing patients with assistance arranging travel and medical services. Using a hypothetical arrangement among U.S. healthcare providers and a Canadian medical practice that not only provides the typical broker services, but also serves to identify appropriate cases for referral from a medical perspective, this article demonstrates how to reduce or even eliminate potential fraud and abuse liability, while improving the quality of the experience for both patients and U.S. providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]