Medical Tourism Facilitator Contract: Who You Actually Sign With

You find a clinic abroad through a booking platform. A coordinator answers your questions, sends quotes and may take a deposit. But when the treatment goes wrong, who is your contract with?

The platforms' own terms answer that clearly: not them. We read the terms of five medical travel platforms. Each one says it is not a party to the treatment contract between you and the clinic. Three of them also cap what you can claim from the platform itself.

Five platforms' terms, side by side

These are five platforms, chosen because their terms are public in English. They are not a sample of the whole industry.

What "not a party" means in the wording

Bookimed's terms say it "is not a representative of the Clinics and does not guarantee the quality of their services". They add that it is "not an intermediary between the patient and Medical Centers".¹

The Medical Tourism Association, which runs a patient platform, goes further. Once a user and a provider agree a contract, it "is not involved in the contractual relationship" and "does not assume any rights, obligations or liabilities" from it.²

Better by MTA, its booking service, puts it in one line: on confirmation, "a direct contract is established between you and the Provider".³ It "facilitates the booking and payment process but is not a party to the contract".³

Deposits are where the line blurs

Several platforms handle money, which is where a patient might reasonably think the platform is more than a noticeboard.

• Bookimed may take a confirmation deposit of 200 euros or dollars. Its terms describe this as "a payment for our services", which the clinic then deducts from the treatment price. It is refundable if you ask at least 10 days before the appointment.¹
• Better by MTA calls itself the "Merchant of Record" and processes refunds. But "any decision to refund rests solely with the Provider".³
• The Medical Tourism Association lists, among its paid services, "secure payment due to Medical Tourism Association acting as a guarantor for any deposits".²
• Qunomedical says it is not a payment agent or money recipient for any clinic. It is paid by the clinics, so its service is free to patients.⁴

So a platform can take your money and still not be the one that owes you the treatment.

When a platform can still answer for it

The terms are written by the platforms. Whether a court accepts them is a separate question, and the answer depends on the country.

Astris Law, an Australian law firm, sets out the position under the Australian Consumer Law. It says an agent booking for a named clinic is not a party to the treatment contract. But a business that "holds itself out as supplying the whole package risks being treated as the supplier of all of it, treatment included".⁶

The same firm says a term excluding an agent's own consumer guarantees is void under section 64 of that law.⁶ A clause choosing a foreign law does not keep the Australian law out on its own. It cites the case of Valve, a US company held to Australian consumer guarantees despite terms choosing Washington State law.⁶

The firm also notes that no reported Australian decision appears to have considered a medical tourism facilitator.⁶

The platforms' own terms leave room for this. PlacidWay's liability cap does not limit "non-waivable consumer rights".⁵ Bookimed's choice of Portuguese law is "without prejudice to any consumer rights provided by the laws of your country of residence".¹

What the terms leave out

• The treatment itself. Every set of terms points claims about care back to the clinic. PlacidWay says disputes over clinical care, malpractice and refunds owed by a provider "are primarily between the Patient and Provider".⁵
• Whose law covers the clinic. For UK and EU patients, the home-law rule for consumer contracts does not apply when the service is supplied entirely in another country.⁷ Treatment in Istanbul is supplied in Istanbul. Our article on suing a clinic abroad covers which court can hear that claim.
• The commission. Qunomedical says clinics pay it.⁴ Astris Law says marketing a service as independent can make silence about a commission misleading in Australia.⁶ Our article on facilitator commissions covers what they are typically paid.
• Untested ground. The Australian position, as the law firm says, rests on general principle.⁶ We found no court decision on a medical tourism platform in the countries we checked.

How to use this before you book

Before paying anything, find the name of the clinic's legal entity on the quote. That is who you are contracting with for the treatment.

Ask the platform in writing what it is responsible for: the booking, the deposit, the translation, the transfers. Ask who decides a refund, and keep a dated copy of the platform's terms and its sales pages. If something goes wrong, those pages are what a lawyer will read first.