Most people if they're feeling OK, don't go to the doctor. Referral patterns thus determine a hospital's case mix, he said. Among 284 inpatient angioplasties last year, Shlofmitz had no Medicaid patients, and one black patient, according to state records. He had two patients without insurance. A patient can get to Saint Francis in a couple of ways.
Many patients simply go to the hospital's emergency room.
Otherwise, they are referred by primary care physicians or cardiologists. A cardiologist at Huntington Hospital who perhaps has done a stress test, or who has an emergency room heart attack patient, may call a doctor he or she knows at Saint Francis, and ask them to take their patient. There's a certain reluctance in the fraternity of doctors to send patients who may have difficulty paying, however. But we call, and they take them. If they want the good cases, they have to take the bad cases - not just the medically complicated, but the insurance problems.