By Evan Levine, M.D.

In a famous episode of the television show, Seinfeld, Kramer decides to go to his friend’s dog’s veterinarian and suggest to the vet that hisdog has the same symptoms as he does. Kramer figures that the vet will treat him with the same medication as the dog but at a huge discount compared to the cost of going to a medical doctor.

While we all agree this is great humor, albeit quite ridiculous, we may not realize how wrong Kramer was.

In fact, he might have gotten a far greater discount, if this dog was ill, going to the medical doctor and suggesting he had the same symptoms as the dog.

This week a colleague told me a story about his dog and the cost to care for him.

Unfortunately his best friend died as a result of congestive heart failure, a common illness that he and I see, and his dog received an echocardiogram as part of his visit to the vet.

The cost of this echocardiogram ,that required immediate payment, was about $800. the test was likely an older model previously used on humans that cost a fraction of the echo machines he and I use on our human patients.

The study also included an abdominal sonogram, which appeared unnecessary, and was performed by his vet, who is not a specialist in heart disease.

The machine used to conduct the test was likely an older model previously used on humans that cost a fraction of the echo machines he and I use on our human patients.

If he or any other cardiologist had performed the same type of echocardiogram, with a new and far more costly machine, they would be entitled to about $250-dollars and would hopefully receive payment from the insurer within a month.

The dog’s “echo” cost him more than twice he receives for performing an echocardiogram on a human!

And for the dog's study he was required to pay in cash before the doctor agreed to do it!

Many cardiologists now have to call the patient’s insurer and give a detailed reason why they wish to do this  study before that insurer even agrees to pay for it.

A few years ago I met a person whose animal had thyroid disease and required thyroid hormone to prevent the symptoms of hypothyroidism. She told me she purchased this medication from her vet for about $60 each month.

And yet the same medication, if it were prescribed for her by a “human” doctor, can be purchased for as little as $4 a month from a pharmacy at Wal-Mart, Target, or Costco.

An ECG/EKG for your dog is likely to run you over a hundred dollars while the average Medicare reimbursement for a 12 lead ECG/EKG with interpretation is $18!

Surgical procedures and imaging studies, often performed with used and inexpensive equipment are costing the owners of their pets much more than a medical doctor would collect performing a similar procedure.

And again, most vets demand payment, sometimes thousands of dollars, in advance. I do hope that medicine is going to the dogs. I would like to be paid, by the insurers, an equal amount to what the vets are billing to treat our pets. 

About the author: Evan S. Levine, MD FACC, is Director of the Cardiovascular Center at Saint Joseph’s Hospital and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center – Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is also the author of the book “What Your Doctor Won’t (or can’t) Tell You”. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and children.