Cardiologist @MidAmericaHeart, building programs to implement therapies, advance discovery, and foster innovation for patients suffering from heart disease.
🔥 this just in
Patient could not afford SGLT2i that I prescribed for HF.
Understandable and common challenge.
Patient called insurance.
Insurance directed patient to glimepiride which would cost $5
Patient wants Rx for glimepiride.
This now requires 30 minutes of
A patient on my service died. I have spent hours now reviewing the case. Many lessons learned. But need to be honest. I feel like a failure. We don’t really talk about these feelings. We tend to dismiss them. Medicine is not just humbling. Sometimes it’s plain defeating.
I just put in my note,
“if the insurance company peer MD wants to deny my patient sac/val being Rx for symptomatic HFrEF with EF 30% this would be denying patient Class I guideline recommended therapy—which is malpractice.”
#GDMTWorks
Yeah, I’m going there now.
Disagree. It’s actually the best way to learn anatomy. And get some dissection skills. I honestly can’t think of an alternative. And every “dead human body” was donated with full understanding of what we would be doing. Gross anatomy is still a good thing for medical students.
I will be stepping down as Section Chief effective July. My goals from then forward will be focused on clinical care, scholarly activity and innovations, as well as continuing to serve my family at home. I want to be a better Dad and take better care of myself. Lead in a new way.
Heart failure is more deadly than most cancer diagnoses.
Let’s treat this disease with greater respect.
Putting heart failure into remission means giving the disease our best fight.
Carvedilol 6.25 and losartan 25 and see you next year is not our best.
I’m here all day.
Rounding tips for the new attending cardiologist.
With a few 🥵 takes, focused on efficiency, IMHO after doing this many different ways for nearly a decade.
A thread 🧵
It’s definitely a challenge and we do all we can to raise resources for assistance within the limits of the law and managed care.
But to refer a patient to a completely different medication class is malpractice and insurance companies pull this nonsense too often