ReachMD

Renee-Marie Stephano is founder and president of the Medical Tourism Association, also known as MTA, the first international non-profit trade association for the medical tourism industry. Ms. Stephano also serves as general counsel for the MTA and is editor of Medical Tourism Magazine, a bi-monthly journal that addresses all of the issues surrounding medical tourism including legal issues, accreditation, economic issues and a geographical focus on countries growing their business in treating foreign patients.

Ms. Stephano was educated as an undergraduate in international relations went on to earn a juris doctorate degree. She went on to open her own law firm, spending six years serving as general counsel for a US national healthcare administrator (the first US healthcare administrator to implement medical tourism into both self-funded and fully insured health plans in the United States).

Ms. Stephano is considered an expert in medical tourism on legal issues. In her role at the Medical Tourism Association, she helps countries and hospitals create strategic marketing plans and helps identify target markets. She has helped many countries and hospitals achieve their goals of attracting foreign patients and international insurance companies. Ms. Stephano works with global healthcare providers to maintain transparency with respect to quality of care as they increase their flow of patients and she also works with medical travel facilitators to establish best practices to ultimately ensure patient safety.