Minor Surgical Procedures
To aid in diagnosis or treatment, we perform procedures such as skin biopsies, freezing of benign skin lesions, toenail removal, breathing treatments, stitches, EKGs, pulmonary (lung) function testing, drainage of abscesses, etc.
You will be told in advance if there is ever a cost associated with a procedure, such as for:
- supplies like suture material,
- pathology analysis of a biopsy specimen, or
- a culture of fluid drained from an abscess.
You will always know up front when there is a small cost associated with anything we do. And armed with that knowledge you can decide beforehand if it’s worth your money.
WHY DO PROCEDURES IN THE INSURANCE WORLD COST SO MUCH?
(The explanation is somewhat complicated but read on if you like a challenge.)
Procedures cost a lot because insurance companies pay doctors more for doing them than they do for talking to and examining patients.
OK, if you say so . . . But why would they do that?
Well, for starters, insurers can’t quantify the value of most of what doctors do all day long while taking care of patients.
They can’t ‘see’ any tangible value of a doctor examining a patient, analyzing their symptoms, sorting through all the possible diagnoses, or evaluating which treatment option is best for a particular patient.
And since they can’t or don’t want to appreciate the value of that work, they get away with not paying for it.
But when a patient sees a doctor who performs a procedure, something tangible is removed, changed, added, or accomplished.
Perhaps there is a printed test result or a pathology report available
that proves the doctor spent time doing something for the patient.
Only then are the insurance companies compelled to pay for the doctor’s time. Unbelievable, isn’t it?