(Snippets from the frontline)
Caring for furry friends
My neighbor’s cat had a stomach hairball and needed it removed by a veterinarian using an endoscope. After many phone calls, the cost varied from $6000, down to $1600. They took the latter, with the hairball retrieved.
Not everyone has insurance for their furry friends, but I found it interesting Medicare doctors are payed $194 for the same procedure in a senior patient.
Veterinarians (DVM) and MDs are highly trained in their fields. Yet other comparisons show DVMs receive $300 for an x-ray, while MDs are payed $25 by Medicare; a heart rhythm EKG is $100, whereas it is reimbursed $18; a veterinarian specialist receives $6000 for a hip replacement, while an orthopedist is payed $1100.
Payments differ throughout the nation for veterinarians, but Medicare varies little due to geography. Plus, Medicare is insurance, while these are DVM cash prices since most people don’t have pet insurance.
Not surprisingly, Medicaid insurance for the poor (Medi-Cal in California) pays MDs even less.
Because of low physician reimbursement, treatment access for the elderly and poor is hindered.
Too bad Medicare and Medicaid don’t come with 9 lives.
Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D.
How true your message is — My daughter is charged $200 to just come in the vet’s door and the x-rays are much much more than for a human. Recently, she had to have her precious little Havanese dog put down because the cost to treat the animal was just so expensive.
Now, she is dealing with the doctor and emergency bill for having her arm put back into place when she fell and knocked it out of the shoulder joint. How much? $6000. There is no way she can pay this, so is appealing to them for a reduction. She has been told that it is the insurance industries fault that our medical bills are so high.
Because pets don’t have Medicat or Medidog and payment system is transparent to the point that you know in advance how much it take to treat your cat or dog.
While for our patient everything is kept ambiguous and confusions is created between observation and admission and my fees are paid 45 -60 days later if not denied by Medicare or private insurances.