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Hi everyone, this is John Mandrola from the Heart.org Medscape Cardiology and this is this week in

cardiology for January 24th, 2020.

This week executive physicals, Coconut Fat, Leadless Pacemakers, Endovascular Coils, and Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistance Care.

First, an announcement. Next week, this week in

cardiology, will take a week off. I am in Rome, Italy for the Four Words

Conference. First topic today is executive

physicals for heart health. American medicine has many ugly

blemishes, the inequity of care, high drug prices, the moral hazards of fee for service, but the executive physical

offered by prestigious academic medical centers may be one of its ugliest.

Executive physical are health screening programs targeted to rich people who are able to pay directly for screening tests that are not generally covered by insurance.

Of course, insurance companies don't cover these tests because they have no proven benefit.

Publishing in Jama Internal Medicine, Alan Gee and Dr. David Brown from St. Louis,

set out to assess the cardiovascular exams in these health screening

programs offered by top hospitals, as ranked by the US News and World reports. The authors simply called the hospitals to inquire about the different

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