Medical tourism on the upswing

It appears Tallahassee officials want a ride on the medical tourism bus, which has motored through the Gulf Coast for a few years.

Medical tourism combines health care with hospitality. So someone can come to Florida for a surgery or another procedure, then utilize the state's bevy of hotels and attractions. Some in Tallahassee like the idea so much, reports the Associated Press, that legislators will consider a measure to allocate $5 million annually to add medical tourism to the list of state attractions. The money, says the AP, would promote a combination of hospitality and medical care to people everywhere from the U.S. to the Middle East, the Caribbean and Europe.

Officials point to a project in south Florida, where a medical management firm turned the former Metropolitan Hospital of Miami into a medical tourist destination. But the idea of medical tourism, and in some cases the execution, has percolated on the Gulf Coast for several years.