Heart of the matter

As a practicing family practioner in the Greater Bangor area, it was with great interest that I read your article regarding the “CON” process for hospitals seeking cardiac catherization labs (“8 hospitals seek cardiac labs,” by Michael O’D. Moore, March 11. The article centered on costs to the public and made it appear that cost shifting would occur with Medicare and Medicaid sharing the burden. As all the central players in the health care industry know, cost shifting actually occurs because of these federal and state processes causing an undue burden on the hospitals and private payors and not the opposite.

I found it interesting that none of the discussions in the article centered on what was best for the patient and the community. Having a private family practice in Brewer, a large number of my patients have been greatly inconvenienced in the past having to receive their cardiac catherization from Eastern Maine Medical Center when their preference was St. Joseph Hospital. The additional cost to transfer the patient to EMMC and back from this institution also provided a financial burden to the medical system.

If politics and territoriality are put aside, and common sense and patient-community needs are allowed to rule, I believe these decisions would become much clearer. If finances play a large role in determining need, then it is just for this reason that we must establish competition and drive the cost of services down. Kenneth G. Simone, D.O. Brewer Family Medicine