bursed as long as they're not within 72 hours of scheduled proce-
dures."
Cancer doesn't wait
There's no one-size-fits-all approach to ramping up your colonoscopy
service line in the era of COVID-19. "A small endoscopy center in a
rural county is not the same as an urban center in the middle of a
bustling metropolis," says Dr. Al-Haddad.
While there's no doubt a very compelling business reason to get
your colonoscopy service line back to pre-pandemic levels, there's an
even more powerful patient-driven reason to make sure people don't
forego critical care that can still be done safely. "We don't call colono-
scopies elective procedures, we call them life-saving procedures,"
says Dr. Kim. "If patients have colon polyps and we get them out,
we've saved their life."
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