NAAOP Working With the O&P Alliance for the O&P Profession

This article continues our series of articles about the Orthotic and Prosthetic Alliance (O&P Alliance) to highlight united advocacy efforts in the profession. This issue features reflections about the role of the National Association for the Advancement of Orthotics and Prosthetics (NAAOP) in the Alliance. Since 1987, NAAOP has engaged in both education and advocacy to promote policy in the interest of O&P patients. This patient-centered focus arises directly out of the personal experience of its founding and current Executive Director George Breece, who had two close relatives with limb loss. A former member of the North Carolina House of Representatives, Breece worked with Peter Thomas, JD, who has bilateral lower-limb amputations, to direct NAAOP's efforts toward government relations with a focus on healthcare legislation and regulations affecting O&P patients and professionals. NAAOP brings that experience and expertise to bear as a member of the O&P Alliance, collaborating with other O&P industry groups on a variety of issues critical to the profession. As an organization specializing in government relations on the legislative and regulatory sides, NAAOP's work with the Alliance touches on numerous issues critical to the long-term success of the profession and the patients it serves: supporting regulations that link Medicare payment to O&P provider qualifications to protect patients from unqualified individuals; encouraging reforms to Medicare's Recovery Audit program; and increasing timely access to Administrative Law Judges (the third level in the four-level Medicare appeals process) in compliance with federal regulations. On these and other efforts, the cooperation between Alliance members has resulted in the identification of issues and the creation of strategies that it is unlikely any single organization could have achieved on its own. NAAOP adds value to the Alliance on these and other issues as a result of its long-standing relationships with members of Congress, the administration, federal agencies and contractors that administer Medicare and Medicaid, coalitions of national health organizations, and private insurance to heighten their awareness of the O&P profession. For example, as the number of injured servicemen and women returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts rose, NAAOP spearheaded an effort to ensure that they could receive quality care from practitioners not only within the Veterans Health Administration system, but also from any independent, qualified clinician as well. The Injured and Amputee Bill of Rights has consistently found champions on Capitol Hill. The Alliance has provided NAAOP the opportunity to push for its passage through legislative and administrative channels with a much broader base of support than it would otherwise have on its own. NAAOP also works closely with healthcare providers and patient advocates to ensure appropriate access to prosthetic care at the state level, keeping its Alliance partners apprised of its efforts so that required collaboration can occur when needed. For example, in early 2015, NAAOP coordinated an effort to overturn a restriction under New York State's health insurance exchange program that limits its beneficiaries with amputations to only one prosthesis per limb per lifetime. In less than two months, collaborating with New York-based advocates, those efforts helped garner letters from Senate and Assembly members to the state's health exchange director, and more than 13,000 signatures for an online petition opposing this limitation. NAAOP assisted in drafting key documents that were presented to the New York State Legislature and participated in numerous visits to the legislators. As we look to the future of U.S. healthcare, which is undergoing rapid transformation for a variety of reasons, including the reforms mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, NAAOP believes the O&P Alliance has a vital role to play in the future of the profession. The varied expertise and interests of each Alliance member will help protect and advance those interests in a healthcare world that is simultaneously consolidating and increasing in complexity. For more information about NAAOP, visit www.naaop.org . For information about becoming an NAAOP member, go to www.naaop.org/join . Editor's note: All member organizations of the O&P Alliance will be given the opportunity to submit their perspectives about their involvement in the organization. Views expressed by the individual associations do not necessarily reflect those of the editor or publisher.

NAAOP Working With the O&P Alliance for the O&P Profession

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NAAOP Working With the O&P Alliance for the O&P Profession

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