Office-based exercise testing for cardiovascular risk provides many potential benefits to patients, while creating much-needed new revenue for cash-strapped primary care practices, says Corey Evans, MD, a family physician at St. Anthony’s Primary Care in St. Petersburg, FL.

“If you use the tools of stress testing plus intimal medial thickness measurement, you can do a tremendous amount of the vascular work-up that you’re now referring out,” said Dr. Evans who will be a featured speaker at Holistic Primary Care’s upcoming Heal Thy Practice: Transforming Patient Care conference, Nov. 9-11, 2012.

Stress testing is very effective for risk stratification, and it often provides strong indicators of modifiable risk.

Not only does it provide tremendous convenience for patients–saving them a trip to another facility–it can often eliminate the need for other more invasive tests. “Patients come in all the time with records from labs where they paid cash for echocardiograms and other vascular tests, some of which they did not need,” said Dr. Evans who frequently teaches office-based stress testing for the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Right now, only about 15% of all family doctors offer exercise stress testing, meaning that there are wide-open niches in many communities. Dr. Evans says the learning curve is fairly quick, and the startup investment–typically between $15,000 and $20,000–is within reach of independent practitioners.

Insurance reimbursement is typically $200-$300 per test, and it can certainly create a strong revenue stream in a cash-based practice.

At Heal Thy Practice, Dr. Evans will highlight the basics of exercise stress testing, outline the economic model for bringing it into a primary care practice, and share insights on how information gleaned from the tests can be used to improve patients’ health and sometimes save them money.

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