A facilitator promises a steady flow of international patients. The presentation looks polished. Before discussing monthly targets, ask what happens when someone arrives with a different understanding of the price or proposed treatment.
That conversation reveals more than a lead forecast. A working partnership needs clear responsibilities, accurate communication and a shared response when plans change. Use these ten questions during due diligence. The scenarios are illustrative, not allegations about any business.
1. How do you find patients?
Ask which websites, advertisements, referrals and subcontractors generate inquiries. Request representative materials and establish who approves claims about your clinic. Understand whether the audience matches services you can responsibly provide.
Example: If a partner advertises a procedure your clinicians rarely consider appropriate, inquiries may create pressure and disappointment. Review the actual advertisement, translated versions and the destination of each inquiry form before signing.
2. What do you tell patients about your role?
Patients should know whether they are dealing with a provider, independent coordinator or intermediary paid by providers. Ask how commercial relationships and role limits are explained. Clinical advice must reach the appropriate professional.
Example: A coordinator shouldn’t describe themselves as the hospital’s medical adviser unless that role is accurate and authorised. Read email signatures, biographies and standard introductions together. Small differences can create different expectations.
3. How do you select inquiries to send?
Distinguish administrative screening from clinical assessment. A partner can establish language needs and records availability. Clinical suitability belongs in the provider’s approved process. Ask how uncertain or potentially urgent messages reach a qualified person.
Example: Ability to pay a deposit isn’t evidence of suitability. Request a sample handover preserving the patient’s questions and distinguishing verified information from self-reported details.
4. Who owns each stage?
Write down responsibility for records, assessment, quoting, travel, admission, discharge and follow-up. Specify what each handover contains and how receipt is confirmed. A shared messaging group isn’t a responsibility map.
Example: If the facilitator books an interpreter, the clinic still needs confirmation before consultation. Name the person who checks availability and arranges cover. Otherwise, both organisations may assume the other handled it.
5. How are fees structured?
Clarify commissions, patient-facing fees, advertising charges and timing. Have arrangements reviewed against applicable professional and legal rules. Agree how commercial interests are disclosed and how clinical decisions remain independent of referral payments.
Example: If assessment leads to cancellation, specify whether a referral fee remains payable and by whom. Don’t leave staff negotiating exceptions while the patient waits for a refund. Test a fictional cancellation together.
6. What may you promise about prices and outcomes?
Set approval rules for quotes, discounts, descriptions and testimonials. Partners should use current information and withdraw obsolete materials. Ban guarantees your clinicians cannot support. Agree how inaccurate claims are corrected across channels.
Example: A translated advertisement promises a permanent result while approved copy describes limitations. Require correction before publication. Retain the approved version and date as the reference for future materials.
7. How is patient information handled?
Ask what is collected, why, where it is stored and who has access. Review suppliers, international transfers, retention and incident procedures with your privacy adviser. Patient permission alone doesn’t settle every data-protection obligation.
Example: A folder open to every sales contractor is unsuitable as a default records exchange. Test whether access can be limited to case staff and removed when roles or commercial relationships change.
8. Who handles complaints and changes?
Agree how concerns are recorded and escalated. Keep clinical escalation distinct from commercial disputes. Patients shouldn’t need to decide which company’s inbox owns a problem before anyone responds.
Example: A disputed hotel charge may go to the facilitator. A new health concern goes to the designated clinical route. Refund discussions must never delay appropriate care or urgent local assessment.
9. What happens after the patient returns home?
Establish who schedules agreed contact, supplies records and tracks unanswered messages. Plan for the partnership ending while patients still need support. An agency relationship shouldn’t be the only place follow-up information exists.
Example: A patient with an agreed remote review receives a confirmed provider contact. The CDC advises discussing complication arrangements before travel. Incorporate that conversation into partner responsibilities.
10. How will performance be reviewed?
Measure complete handovers, accurate representations, cancellations, complaints and open tasks alongside volume. Set review dates, correction deadlines and a way to suspend referrals. Obtain references and independently verify relevant credentials.
Example: Review the first five cases, including those that didn’t proceed. If the agreement ends, establish who informs active patients, preserves records and completes outstanding work. Don’t simply remove access and leave cases without owners.
Bring this checklist to the first meeting
- Sample advertisements and translated messages.
- Role descriptions and commercial relationship disclosures.
- An anonymised or fictional inquiry-to-follow-up case.
- A responsibility map with named contacts and backups.
- Worked fee, cancellation and refund scenarios.
- Privacy, complaint and clinical escalation procedures.
- A pilot review schedule and active-patient exit plan.
Ask the facilitator to walk through a case that changes halfway through. Their ability to explain the next action is more informative than assurances that problems never happen. Invite your clinical and finance representatives to the relevant parts of the conversation rather than asking marketing to approve every responsibility.
Record what remains unresolved and who will provide evidence. A promising meeting isn’t completed due diligence. Confirm agreed arrangements in the appropriate documents and make the operational parts available to staff who will actually handle cases.
Discuss your partnership process with Altay Medical Tourism Consulting. We can explore how partner selection and patient operations fit your international strategy, with clinical and legal decisions retained by the appropriate specialists.