geries and where they
can't," says Mr.
Pankey. "It's tough if
they book a Medicare
patient here to say,
'But we can't do that
because Medicare
doesn't reimburse for
implants.' You have to
work with the sur-
geons and make sure
they're not booking
cases that are going
to lose us hundreds of
dollars or more.
"For us, the payor
must pay for the
implant — we know
that some will, so
we'll go ahead,
because that huge
implant cost is off our
shoulders, but it's
probably only 25 or
30% of our patients. If
you take all comers
when it comes to ven-
tral hernias, you'll
lose money overall."
Some insurers will
OSE_1402_part2_Layout 1 2/6/14 2:58 PM Page 65
