President Donald Trump’s recent ban on travelers from certain countries could put a chill on international medical visits to hospitals in Chicago and elsewhere, Rush University warned Tuesday.
"Patients are coming to the United States generally for the most complex, necessary care that they can’t get at home, and delaying that care … could ultimately be a matter of life or death," said Tricia Johnson, a professor at Rush, the academic arm of Rush University Medical Center, who helps track medical travel data for a national consortium of hospitals and health systems.
About 50,000 patients came to the U.S. between July 2014 and July 2015 for treatment at 33 hospitals and health systems in the U.S. that were tracked by a center at Rush. That doesn’t include international patients treated at other U.S. hospitals.
The top five countries that patients came from included Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Mexico, she said. Those countries aren’t part of Trump’s recent executive order banning travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
Representatives of Rush, Lurie Children’s Hospital and University of Chicago Medicine said this week they have not so far had any patients caught up in the travel ban.
Still, the ban could create fear among citizens of countries other than the seven named in the order, Johnson said. Patients from other countries might "perceive that there would be risks in them traveling here, either to get here or in not being able to travel back home, that would make them decide to not come to the United States for medical care," she said.
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Last year, Lurie cared for 247 patients from outside the U.S., said spokeswoman Julie Pesch. Those patients came from 36 countries, but the majority came from Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
That includes patients like AliAlhadhi Ahmad who, at 6 months old, traveled with his family to Lurie from Kuwait for treatment of spinal bifida, a neurological defect that affects the back bones, spinal cord and surrounding nerves. He was treated at Lurie’s Spina Bifida Center for seven months before returning home. He visited Lurie again last year where he was fitted with devices to help him walk, according to Lurie.
Rush University Medical Center spokesman John Pontarelli wasn’t able Tuesday to provide numbers on international patients treated at Rush, but he said most come from the Middle East, Europe and South America. Representatives for University of Chicago Medicine and Northwestern Medicine were not able to immediately provide information about international patients Tuesday.
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Trump’s executive order, signed Friday, prohibits citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days. It also bans Syrian refugees from entering the country indefinitely, and bars all refugees for 120 days.
A drop in international medical travel to the U.S. isn’t unprecedented. The country saw a significant dip in people traveling to the U.S. for medical treatment after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as well, Johnson said. It took years for medical travel to the U.S. to recover.
Fewer international patients might be a problem for hospitals, said Josef Woodman, CEO of Patients Beyond Borders, a company based in North Carolina that publishes and sells guides about international medical travel.
"Hospitals will feel it because as their margins shrink, they need that out-of-pocket patient that they charge a lot of money to," Woodman said.
Andy Garman, a Rush professor who helps track the data, said if U.S. hospitals lose significant numbers of international patients, it won’t affect them in a big way financially. Some international patients pay for their treatment out of pocket, others have insurance that covers care and still others’ care is sponsored by their governments, Johnson said.
"The economic impact is relatively low," Garman said. "But the mission impact is pretty significant."
lschencker@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @lschencker
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