Tuesday, June 1, 2010

More Promotion of Veterinary Junk Billing


American Veterinary Medical Association Launches "Risky Business -

Watch this video, put out by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and sponsored by Fort Dodge (a veterinary pharmaceutical company owned by Wyeth which is now owned by Pfizer.

You will notice the very obvious "concern mongering" going on here.

Apparently Basset Hounds are sky-boarding and kittens are going down waterfalls in wooden barrels!

And apparently we all need to be taking our pets to the vet twice a year for "risk assessment."

According to this fear-mongering video, if your dog occasionally drinks from a puddle it might die (and never mind if your dogs have been drinking from puddles for 45 years)

And while the AVMA has never said a word about the serious congenital health problems faced by Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (because God knows that breed of dog is a big money-maker for vets and pharmaceutical companies and we wouldn't want to cabash that breed as a veterinary cash cow!) they want you to worry if you board your dog.

Right. No doubt, you should be worried about boarding your dog anywhere except at the vets!

And apparently killer squirrels are loose in the park. Killer squirrels? Good Lord, my backyard is full of those! How have my dogs managed to live for so long?

After running through this litany of nonsense, this AVMA video finally gets to its core message:

"And this is why every pet needs a "risk assessment and wellness exam twice a year."


Really?

Nonsense!

To repeat what I said in an earlier post about vets that tell you to bring your dog in twice a year for "well-dog" physical exams:

If your vet tells you this, leave immediately and never come back.

Here's why: your vet thinks you are an idiot.

You have just been insulted, and you should be pissed off about it!


Of course, to be fair, a lot of people really are idiots.

We see proof of that every day in TV ads which tell us that everyone can be an instant millionaire by buying property with no money down, and where we are toldd if you send in your gold jewelry and expensive watches to a nameless, faceless person in another state, they will give you a "really good deal" by sending you a few dollars back.

These ads continued to run week after week, month after month, because a lot of people really are stupid, and separating stupid people from their money is a big business here in the United States.

And so I expect the veterinary associations are right: There really is a lot of money to be made by ripping off the rubes.

That is the message of Abbott Animal Health, Merial, Pfizer Animal Health, Fort Dodge, Bayer Animal Health, and all the others, as they reach out to veterinarians across the country to suggest a new business model based on price-gouging, selling medically unnecessary services, upcoding, and bill-padding.

A full-court press is on to get more veterinarians to rip off their customers.

Trade literature, online videos, continuing medical education conferences, and one-on-one "consultations" are increasingly devoted to this topic, and almost all are paid for by veterinary pharmaceutical companies, with the full blessing of the American Veterinary Medical Association which operates as a bought-and-paid-for arm of big pharma.

At this point in the game, going to the vet is an intelligence test, and if you are not pushing back on unnecessary tests, bill-padding, and price-gouging, you are failing that test.

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