The $28,000 Heel Surgery! (or is it $56K?)
There is a podiatry group in my area that promotes their
practice in a unique way. Every two or three month every resident from magic
Mountain to Santa Monica (about 100 miles) receives a full color 4-page
illustrated brochure touting the skills and abilities of the podiatric surgeons
in the group. Imagine that! They send out tens of thousands of these brochures
to tens of thousands of homes. They stress their competence with Shock Wave
Therapy which they call Noninvasive Sound Wave Surgery. I must admit that the
brochures are beautiful and the descriptions of the doctors make them sound
outstanding. They give their readers an almost impossible come-on that includes,
can you believe your good fortune, a Free Visit. I have had many a patient bite
on this line and visit this group of experts. One of them brought back a fee
estimate that I present below with some of my comments appended. Note that they
do more than just shockwave therapy; they add a procedure where a few drill
holes is made in the heel bone through a tiny surgical cut is made on the bottom
of the foot. These doctors are the only ones I have ever heard of that advocate
adding drill holes in the bone to the shock wave surgery. None of the articles
on shock wave surgery ever talk about this procedure. None of the text books
ever talk about this procedure. Why would this group of "highly competent" foot
surgeons add this procedure to their shock wave therapy. I think there might be
4500 dollars, er, I mean answers per foot. Look at the actual fee estimate I
present below. The surgeon charge is $4500 for the shock wave and $4500 for the
fenestration. They charge an assistant fee $3150 for no known reason. There is
no possible way an assistant can add any value to either the shock wave or the
fenestration (and this from a surgeon who used an assistant every time it is
possibly warranted.) Now we are up to $12,250. next they add in the use of their
own surgery facility (in my office I use my room number 7 for no additional
charge) for an additional $12,500 bringing the subtotal to $24,750. While I
inject the anesthetic into the heel myself in a treatment room they bring in an
anesthesiologist who charges an additional $2500 so we are up to $27,150. Each
post-operative visit costs about $600 and there can be many of these.
So, do you get the picture? For every Free Visit that
converts to a heel pain surgery with shock wave they make $28,000 - per foot.
Two feet is, presumably, $56,000. With fees like this they can pay for such an
expensive advertising campaign. Luckily, with you $56,000 I understand you
also get a Free Lunch.
By the way Kathering L had me do her Shock Wave surgery
for about $2000. She felt grateful and had a full resolution of her heel pain.
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