Contracting healthcare to Centers of Excellence is not a new model, employers have been leveraging these programs to provide quality healthcare at lower costs to their employees. However, with the economic downturn and pent-up demand for healthcare triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, the paradigm of health will shift toward this model - more self-funded employers will adopt this healthcare plan to minimize healthcare spendings while optimizing clinical outcomes for their employees

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, has been awarded Accreditation for a three-year term by the Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA) Program for its Medical Travel Services Program.

As travel is slowly returning to normal, medical travelers have new expectations from a medical tourist destination - these patients now not only seek quality and affordability of medical care but also a medical travel destination that has put in place adequate measures to safeguard their health, given the COVID-19 pandemic.

As travel restrictions begin to lift; however, patients will begin to seek medical and dental care at destinations and organizations where they feel safe.

As healthcare spending in the U.S. continues to rise, employers are increasingly turning to direct contracting with Centers of Excellence (COE’s) in order to lower healthcare costs and provide competitive insurance benefits to employees