Secret Cardiology – EECPWhy cardiologists don like it – and what you should do about it
(Continued from Page 2) Despite its increasingly apparent potential usefulness, EECP is hardly taking the cardiology world by storm. In fact, it seems that for most cardiologists EECP is not even on the list of potential treatments for coronary artery disease. Why is that? There are several possible reasons. Let us dispense with the most obvious first, namely, that EECP doesn t pay well. A series of 35 treatments costs $5000 to $6000 dollars. That s not chicken feed, but keep in mind that we re talking about 35 hours of therapy over 7 weeks, which involves not only the doctor s time but also the time of office staff, nursing personnel, etc., etc. Still not a terrible return, but when you consider that a cardiologist can often bill that much by spending a morning in the cath lab, well – – -. Then there s the fact that EECP remains somewhat intellectually unsatisfying. To your average cardiologist, there s no reason at all that anyo