In 2006, the American Medical Association issued a new set of guidelines listing certain factors that patients should carefully consider when entertaining the idea of medical tourism.This was also the year when the American insurance company Blue Ridge Paper Products, Inc introduced a medical tourism incentive into its employee benefit plan.Since then, many insurance plans and brokerage companies have been founded to capitalize on this increasingly pop- ular and lower-cost health care option. Unfortunately, the paperwork can be extremely complicated, deterring some patients from consulting these companies.Certain companies link family physicians to specialists in foreign countries as a way of maximizing continuity of care.However, family physicians in the Western world should not automatically assume that this service has been provided, and should take medical tourism into account when working with any patient.