Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The EP Implications of the Economic Crisis

"Your patient that you saw with supraventricular tachycardia called today to say she and her husband lost their jobs and they've had to postpone their ablation procedure until they can see if they can get financial assistance."

-Wes

1 comment:

iheartnurse said...

Having undergone an SVT ablation personally (twice!), and having seen the itemized bill that the insurance company was kind enough to forward on to me after they paid the vast majority of the first and all of the second, I totally understand the bite that an economic crisis could take out of an EP practice.

On the other hand, a protracted financial crisis will unfortunately lead to a dramatic increase in demand for ICD's as long ignored coronary artery disease destroys otherwise salvageable heart muscle. So Buck up! Your young and otherwise healthy patients will soon be replaced with young and very ill ones. Sad but true. Sorry.