Mr. Moore

This is in response to your article published 5/2/2008 – Moore to the Point: Student Athletic Physicals

How interesting that hearing, behavior and mental health assessments are required. To my knowledge, none of these are know to cause sudden cardiac death. Cardiovascular screening however is not required, and it has been shown to cause sudden cardiac death – often. I thought your article was spot on, except for one area that you might look into a little further.

Many hospitals, non-profit foundations or companies such as ours are now offering screening echocardiograms at a reduced cost. The thought that echocardiograms are rather expensive is not entirely precise.

While obtaining complete echocardiogram in a hospital or out-patient clinic setting as a cash paying patient may well be expensive ($800 – 1000) these reported costs are usually quite inflated and many times greater than what they actually receive from an insurance carrier. The average insurance reimbursement in our region is around $300-400 per echocardiogram. In a screening setting like that used for high school athletes, they can easily be performed for a fraction of the cost. Only those with positive screening results would then be recommended to have a complete echocardiogram.

The good news is that this information is beginning to travel fast. Here in Texas, we have started a State sponsored (funded) pilot screening program for 12 yo students. Keep your eyes and ears open as we hope this will be a requirement of all athletes in the future. Thanks again for helping to spread the word. For details on the low cost screening programs, feel free to visit our website listed below. If I can answer any screening questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards,

Kevin Rooker, RT(R), RDMS, RVT
Program Coordinator
The Heart To Play