03/14/2017    Paul Kesselman, DPM

Medicare Proposed Change to Orthotic Dispensing Rule (Robert Steinberg, DPM)

While it is true that Medicare does not
normally cover orthotics the "read between the
lines" implication of this proposal is that
DPMs, MDs and DO physicians are not trained to
dispense foot orthotics. I can think of just a
few things that a plaintiff's counsel might do
with that at a trial where the patient alleges
they were injured from your orthotic device.

This is regardless of whether you care or don't
care whether third party payers cover the
device. Whether you agree with this philosophy
or not, the jury just hearing this will no
doubt be more empathetic to the patient,
despite what your defense counsel and scope of
practice act states.

This issue goes far beyond whether you care to
participate in Medicare or any third party
payment system. It also involves your
colleagues who may not have the luxury of
practicing in a geographic area where they
either participate in Medicare or other plans
or they will not survive.

Yes, there are certain plans I and others may
choose not to accept but as stated previously,
this is an attack on your state scope of
practice and I hope that every DPM reading this
letter will have submitted a letter to CMS
reflecting that philosophy. APMA has on their
website provided a very simple and free way to
submit your comments.

In this forum, several companies who support
the profession also have provided the readers
with a similar free way to submit your
comments. The deadline is 5PM Monday March 13
2017. I urge everyone to either take 10 minutes
to compose your own letter or two minutes to
use one of the sample templated letters easily
available via the recent "Your Future is At
Stake" advertisement contained in this forum

Paul Kesselman, DPM, Woodside, NY

There are no more messages in this thread.