marm assistance detail how they prepare for the summer travel season to Turkey

The Tourism Recovery

Sector representatives, including the marm travel agency, expect tourist numbers to Turkey this year to return to 2019 levels, and indeed even exceed those figures in the southwestern resort cities. Travel restrictions for Covid-19 were lifted on 1 June, and Turkey made a good start to 2022 summer for both domestic and international tourism.

According to a World Travel & Tourism Council report, Turkey is set to be the fourth most popular European destination this summer.

In the meantime, marm travel has completed its preparations, extended its hotel network, made agreements with international airways, and added tailor-made solutions to its services such as customised tours and concierge services.

In parallel with the high volume of tourists, the need for air evacuation is also increasing, so marm travel ensures it is up to date with the stretcher and wheelchair capabilities of airlines, making upfront agreements with them where necessary.

Marm’s in-house medical escort team have completed their refreshment training courses, and obtained the necessary visas, and are now ready to accompany patients onboard commercial carriers globally.

Hospitals, especially in the riviera region, are one of the most important players in the tourism. Negotiation on extremely inflated prices under Turkey’s economic condition after two years of pandemic requires know how and experience in the local market.

Cost Containment

While the annual inflation rate in EU countries hit a record of 8.1 per cent in May 2022, which is the highest since recordkeeping, the annual inflation rate in Turkey accelerated to 73.5 per cent in May 2022.

There has been an increase of more than 150 per cent in the cost of electricity and food, and a more than 300 per cent increase in the cost of oil and gas within a year in Turkey. All these price increases were also reflected in hospital prices.

Analysing and negotiating inflated hospital prices with local service providers is more sensitive than in previous years. marm has been in the market for over 36 years, and has survived many economic crises with its local economic know how and taking timely precautions to protect itself from the impacts of these fluctuations. Unfortunately, some international companies in the sector had to withdraw from the country.

The marm mission is keeping the balance between the service providers and their insurance/assistance partners.

marm has a cost containment team consisting dedicated and experienced doctors and the nurses. Transparent bills and complete medical information are essential from the hospitals. marm has always performed line-by-line medical bill evaluations to detect any over treatment, overcharges, or non-covered items; cost prevention plays a very important role, especially in this unstable economy.

Beside performing classical cost containment services on hospital bills, the marm medical team prefers to be involved in cases from the very beginning. Then, the team can obtain initial medical report, can recommend a transportation to another facility or advise a repatriation. Case management from the first day of treatment allows marm to perform the most effective cost containment.

Case management is a process beginning far before the patients' admission to medical facilities. The support of the network team, cost prevention with good cooperation and close monitorisation of the facilities, are the first steps of case management.

Cost and Quality

Quality is not only marm’s strongest ring, it is also in the company culture.

Teamwork is essential for quality and includes all parties in the medical assistance sphere. marm always requires a balance between quality and cost from its service providers. Quality is not only the ability to provide good service, but also good communication and reasonable prices. Our network team assess service providers periodically from that perspective.

The marm medical and cost containment team is proud to receive customer satisfaction feedback from its partners and works very hard to keep sustainability on the quality.

To maintain high quality, marm’s medical team attends and runs several training courses – marm is one of the AHA (American Heart Association) training centres, and with its inhouse doctors and the nurses who have completed their courses, provide BLS and ACLS trainings.